Mass Tort Victim Advocacy

PSZJ has represented more committees of tort victims in mass tort bankruptcies than any other firm. No other firm has successfully resolved more childhood sexual abuse bankruptcy cases. Experience representing non-abuse mass tort victims includes LTL Management LLC, Imerys, Rochester Drug Co-op, Takata Americas, Thorpe Insultation Company, ABB Lummus Global, Flintkote Company, Combustion Engineering, ACandS, Federal-Mogul, W.R. Grace & Co., Owens Corning, & Gateway Educational Products.

PSZJ works directly with tort victims and their individual counsel to achieve concrete results. Recent accomplishments include:

• Archdiocese of San Francisco: On April 19, 2024, PSZJ, on behalf of the committee of child sexual abuse survivors, was the first firm to file a response to the debtor’s one-sided declaration regarding its history and reason for filing for bankruptcy.
• Diocese of Rockville Centre: In June, 2023, PSZJ won a two-day trial on behalf of the unsecured creditors committee against the debtor’s attempt to stay litigation against affiliated nondebtor entities over the committee’s objection. The debtor then proceeded to remove the nondebtor litigation in federal court, Judge Gary Brown of the Eastern District of New York was the first of over a dozen federal judges to remand the cases back to state court, state that “Critics of the law have long decried unimaginable delays and costs that can arise from excessive litigative wrangling. Such waits can range from the intolerable to the unconscionable. The matters discussed herein fall squarely into the latter category.” In the spring of 2024, the debtor attempted to bypass the committee and propose a plan that inadequately marshalled its available assets to compensate survivors. The Committee worked with survivors to resoundingly reject the debtor’s plan.