The Roman Catholic Bishops of New Jersey announced today their decision to retain Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille Biros to design, implement and administer a statewide Victims Compensation Program for the submission, evaluation, and settlement of individual claims of sexual abuse of a minor.
This Program is intended to compensate eligible victims of child sexual abuse including those whose financial claims are legally barred by New Jersey's statute of limitations.
The Program would operate independently from any of the participating dioceses. The Administrators of the Program will have complete autonomy to determine eligibility of individual claims and the amount of compensation for victims who present a claim.
The Bishops noted that Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Biros are respected internationally. Among their many accomplishments, they have served as the Special Masters of the U.S. Government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and as Administrators of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund as well as Administrators of the victim assistance fund established in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.
The full statement from the NJ Bishops is available
here.