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The role of local Boy Scout councils in the national organization’s chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the sexual abuse crisis that propelled it, is a flashpoint in a slew of new lawsuits on behalf of men who say they were abused as scouts, USA Today reported. The latest case, filed in Montana on Tuesday by attorneys with Abused in Scouting, includes 10 men who say they were abused by scout leaders. In it, 10 John Does claim that the Montana Scout council is controlled by Boy Scouts of America to such a degree that it is “the alter ego of the BSA.” The same group filed another suit last month on behalf of eight men in Hawaii. Attorneys with the firm Crew Janci also filed five suits last week in Montana for six clients. Gillon Dumas of Dumas & Vaughn of Oregon filed another four in the last month. Another Seattle-based firm filed three more. The lawsuits come nearly four months after Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy reorganization, anticipated for months as a way to limit liability in the abuse cases by carving off assets of the more than 260 local scout councils. In documents filed in February, and subsequent statements, Boy Scouts of America has argued that the national organization should be the only entity required to cover financial settlements in the sexual abuse cases that landed the organization in a state of near financial collapse.

PG&E Corp. said that it would replace most of its board as part of a broad overhaul of its governance structure as the California power giant pushes to exit bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. PG&E said that only three of the 14 current directors will remain after the company exits chapter 11 by mid-year, according to a statement on  Friday. The utility’s chair, Nora Mead Brownell, will be among the departing directors, the company confirmed in an e-mail. PG&E had promised to shake-up its leadership and bring in new safety experts as part of a number of reforms that were pledged to win the approval of California Governor Gavin Newsom of its reorganization plan. Last week, PG&E said that Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson will retire at the end of June. The company will appoint William Smith, a former AT&T executive and one of the three PG&E board members who will remain, as interim CEO until a replacement is found. PG&E is racing to win court and regulatory approval of its turnaround proposal ahead of a state deadline of June 30 so it can participate in a state wildfire fund that will help cover liabilities from future wildfires. The company said on Friday that it was on track to meet that goal. The San Francisco-based company filed for chapter 11 in January 2019 with an estimated $30 billion in liabilities from deadly wildfires blamed on its equipment.

Records show that the Archdiocese of New Orleans, whose finances have been strained by the mounting cost of unresolved-clergy abuse lawsuits and the coronavirus-related shutdown of church services, filed for bankruptcy in New Orleans' federal courthouse just after midnight, NOLA.com reported. The archdiocese serving half a million New Orleans-area parishioners joins more than two dozen other dioceses and Catholic religious orders across the U.S. who have sought financial protection from creditors since the clergy-abuse scandal boiled over in 2002. Pressure from creditors — including investors of more than $38 million in bonds and abuse victims pushing claims that could potentially cost millions of dollars — could force Archbishop Gregory Aymond and other church leaders into difficult choices resembling the post-Hurricane Katrina reorganization plan that shuttered dozens of churches and merged parishes across metro New Orleans. The archdiocese's bankruptcy filing comes amid widespread shutdowns which officials implemented to slow the spread of the highly contagious, potentially deadly coronavirus — but which also devastated various institutions’ bottom lines. Filings early today listed between $100 million and $500 million in both assets and liabilities for the archdiocese, which is being represented by <b>Mark Mintz</b> of Jones Walker. According to prior filings, some specific church assets include a $306 million endowment and $77 million worth of land and buildings whose market value may actually be much higher.

Pacific Gas & Electric and thousands of California families who lost homes or loved ones in fires caused by the utility’s equipment reached a $13.5 billion settlement in December, seemingly putting off a lengthy and fraught legal battle. The deal would allow the company to resolve its bankruptcy and provide homeowners money to rebuild. But as a crucial deadline for a formal vote on the agreement nears, some victims are pressing the company to make changes, the New York Times reported. A group of victims and their lawyers say that they are worried that they will receive a lot less than $13.5 billion since half of that amount will be paid out in shares in PG&E. The company’s stock price has been whiplashed as the economy has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, some victims said that a leading lawyer who negotiated the deal on behalf of thousands of victims appeared to have a conflict of interest: He has borrowed money from a loan facility funded by two investment firms that purchased claims against PG&E, own stock in the utility, invested in PG&E bonds or helped finance its bankruptcy. Two-thirds of the votes cast by the roughly 70,000 victims, most of whom live in Northern California, by May 15 must be for the deal for it to be approved. If the victims don’t ratify the deal, PG&E might not be able to resolve its bankruptcy by June 30, a deadline state lawmakers set for the company to qualify for a $20 billion wildfire fund that will help pay for future wildfire claims against privately owned utilities.

Business lobbyists and executives are pushing the Trump administration and Congress to shield American companies from a wide range of potential lawsuits related to reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, opening a new legal and political fight over how the nation deals with the fallout from COVID-19, the New York Times reported. Government officials are beginning the slow process of lifting restrictions on economic activity in states and local areas across the country. But lobbyists say retailers, manufacturers, eateries and other businesses will struggle to start back up if lawmakers do not place temporary limits on legal liability in areas including worker privacy, employment discrimination and product manufacturing. The biggest push, business groups say, is to give companies enhanced protection against lawsuits by customers or employees who contract the virus and accuse the business of being the source of the infection. Leaders of labor unions say limiting business liability will reward companies that are not taking adequate steps to ensure the safety of their workers and consumers. Republicans are pushing for the liability limitations as a way of stopping what they say are overzealous trial lawyers and giving business owners the certainty they need to reopen. Democratic leaders say they oppose any moves to undermine worker protections. In announcing that the Senate will return on May 4, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said on Monday there was an “urgent need” to enact legislation to shield businesses from pandemic-related legal liability if they reopen, citing the risk of “years of endless lawsuits” arising from “a massive tangle of federal and state laws.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said yesterday that the next coronavirus relief legislation must include liability protections for business owners who reopen and indicated he would be open to some aid for beleaguered states, Bloomberg News reported. The House and Senate both plan to convene in Washington, D.C., on May 4 and resume business with the expectation of additional action to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has shut down businesses and thrown millions of people out of work. As some states begin gradually lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, McConnell said that without protection from lawsuits, business owners could end up with years of legal claims over their efforts to restart the economy.

Victims of California wildfires said some law firms are making it more difficult for them to reject PG&E Corp.’s plan to exit bankruptcy than to accept it, creating a “chilling effect” for those who want to vote against the proposal, Bloomberg News reported. Nearly 80,000 people who lost homes, businesses or loved ones in blazes blamed on the utility’s equipment face a May 15 deadline to vote on a proposal that provides them with $13.5 billion in compensation. PG&E needs the support from two-thirds of wildfire victims who cast a ballot. The bias created by the law firms “erodes confidence in the outcome of the vote,” according to a court filing yesterday by the victims. Lawyers claiming to represent about 1,000 fire victims asked a judge assessing their damages for a “correction of those irregularities for the remainder of the voting period.” One law firm said on its social media platform that it intended to cast “yes” votes for clients and for victims to contact the firm if they disagree, according to the filing.

Thousands of plaintiffs who say that Johnson & Johnson’s  baby powder and talc products caused cancer can go forward with their claims, but face limits on what expert testimony will be allowed in trials after a ruling yesterday by a New Jersey judge, Reuters reported. J&J faces more than 16,000-talc related lawsuits nationwide, the majority of which are pending before U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in New Jersey. The lawsuits allege that the company’s talc products have been contaminated with asbestos and can cause ovarian cancer. The company had sought to bar all of the plaintiffs’ experts from testifying, which would have effectively wiped out all the cases before Judge Wolfson. The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company denies that its talc causes cancer, saying numerous studies and tests by regulators worldwide have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free. The ruling by Judge Wolfson will allow plaintiffs to present expert testimony that J&J’s talc products can cause cancer based on epidemiological studies. They will be allowed to testify that the link could be caused by contamination with asbestos and heavy metals.