Pa. Supreme Court Hears Arguments about Filing Clergy Sex Abuse Cases

October, 2020: Pa. Supreme Court Hears Arguments about Period of Time’ for Filing Clergy Sex Abuse Cases

The case, captioned Rice v. Diocese of Altoona, could be a bellwether for numerous additional lawsuits that have been filed in Pennsylvania in the wake of two grand jury reports issued by the state Attorney General’s Office that documented decades of child sexual abuse by priests in diocese across the state.

A woman who was allegedly sexually abused by a priest in the late 1970s and early 1980s had no way of knowing the extent to which her parish allegedly sought to cover up the abuse until a grand jury finding a widespread conspiracy at the Diocese of Altoona was published in 2016, a lawyer argued to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in an effort to allow his client’s case to come before a jury, despite it being filed years beyond the statute of limitations.

The case, captioned Rice v. Diocese of Altoona, could be a bellwether for numerous additional lawsuits that have been filed in Pennsylvania in the wake of two grand jury reports issued by the state Attorney General’s Office that documented decades of child sexual abuse by priests in diocese across the state.

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