(Montreal) A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected a $28 million settlement in a sex abuse lawsuit against Les Clercs de St-Viateur due to high legal fees associated with the settlement.
Posted at 6:32 p.m.
The agreement would have granted the Montreal law firm Arsenault, Dufresne and Wee, which represented the plaintiffs, more than 8 million in fees.
Judge Thomas M. Davis wrote in a July 4 ruling that these fees are “excessive” and not in the best interests of the more than 375 sexual abuse victims who were part of the class action.
Judge Davis says the firm has done a “remarkable job” and that he expects a new agreement with reasonable fees can be reached and resubmitted to court.
The lawsuit against the Catholic religious order Les Clercs de St-Viateur involved acts committed between 1935 and today at more than 20 establishments run by the group, including boarding schools.
In July 2021, a priest of the order, the Reverend Jean Pilon, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for criminal acts of a sexual nature on a dozen minor victims at the time of the crimes committed between 1961 and 1989.