Archdiocese of New Orleans Lawsuit: $304M Payouts, Delays, and Fees

The Archdiocese of New Orleans clergy abuse lawsuit reached a $304 million settlement confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on December 8, 2025, but as of mid-2026 no payments have gone out to the roughly 600 survivors covered by the deal. Claims are still being scored, and the trustee’s current best estimate for when checks will start moving is fall 2026.

The Seventh Amended Modified Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization took effect on December 26, 2025, after 99% of the approximately 650 survivors who voted approved it.¹ The case, filed May 1, 2020, is one of the longest and costliest Catholic diocese bankruptcies in the country.²

Where the $304 Million Comes From

The settlement trust is funded from five sources:

$65 million from the archdiocese itself.
$65 million from parishes and affiliated Catholic organizations.
$70 million from the sale of Christopher Homes, a portfolio of affordable senior housing that Tredway, a New York-based developer, bought for $152 million in a sale that closed in March 2026.³
$30 million from six settling insurance companies.
$75 million from Travelers Insurance, the archdiocese’s largest insurer, which settled separately after Judge Meredith Grabill overruled its objections to the plan.²

By late May 2026, about $230 million had been deposited into the trust. The Travelers contribution was expected by early June 2026.²

The plan was structured jointly with 156 individual parishes, each of which filed its own bankruptcy petition in November 2025 as a separate debtor. All contributed to the trust. The parish cases reached their effective date on December 16, 2025, and have since been closed.⁴

How Individual Payouts Are Calculated

Each claim is being assigned a score between 0 and 100 points by court-appointed Claims Reviewer Richard Arsenault, an Alexandria, Louisiana attorney selected by the survivors’ committee and approved by the court. Points reflect the nature, frequency, and impact of the abuse.⁵

The scale weights the most severe abuse most heavily. Rape scores 75 points. Grooming without physical contact scores 5. Additional points can be added for survivors who took part in criminal prosecutions, filed suit before the bankruptcy, or can show serious effects on mental health, education, or family life. Points can be reduced if the claimant was over 18 and consented to the sexual contact.⁶

The dollar value of a point won’t be set until every claim has been scored. Once Arsenault finishes, Settlement Trustee Donald Massey calculates a preliminary distribution for each claimant. Survivors then have 30 days from the mailing of their notice to request reconsideration. That request carries a $1,000 fee, which the trustee may waive.⁵

Claims administration is handled by Donlin Recano, a division of Angeion Group. Survivors can check claim status through an online portal or a dedicated support line.

Why Payments Are Delayed

The original expectation was that survivors would begin receiving payments by the end of the first quarter of 2026, around April 1. That deadline passed. A status report filed the week of May 22, 2026, said hundreds of abuse claims were still under review and the “best guess” for when distributions would begin was fall 2026.⁷

The docket has been active in the months since. The court signed an order granting a motion for a final decree on May 22, 2026, and sustained multiple omnibus objections to claims on June 12. On June 15, the Settlement Trustee issued an amended notice about the target completion date for point determinations. An evidentiary hearing for specific disputed claims is set for August 6–7, 2026.⁸

Survivors and their attorneys have been vocal about the repeated delays. The case has passed the six-year mark, and many claimants are elderly or in poor health.⁷

Non-Monetary Reforms and Trustee Complaints

The plan required more than payments. Its drafters described the non-monetary child protection provisions as the most comprehensive ever agreed to by a Catholic diocese. Those include stricter abuse reporting, a Survivors’ Bill of Rights setting out the process for handling future claims, and a public archive of documents from past abuse cases, to be administered by a third-party academic institution.⁹

Trustee Massey has told the court the archdiocese has not fully cooperated. He reported limited information about the Internal Review Board that evaluates abuse allegations, insufficient detail on how sensitive records will be redacted for the public archive, and inadequate data on the intake process for new complaints and law enforcement reporting. Judge Grabill ordered the archdiocese and Massey to meet within 30 days to work through these issues, with a follow-up status conference scheduled for September 17, 2026.²

New Leadership

Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who had led the archdiocese through the bankruptcy, resigned on February 11, 2026. Pope Leo XIV had already appointed Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, as coadjutor archbishop in September 2025, placing him in line to succeed Aymond. Checchio arrived in New Orleans in mid-November 2025 and served alongside Aymond for about three months before formally taking over.¹⁰

Aymond’s resignation came one day after the last of ten group meetings with survivors, held over five days in February 2026. The settlement had allowed 18 months for those sessions, but Aymond compressed the schedule because of his pending retirement.¹¹ Checchio, 59, holds a doctorate in canon law and previously served as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. In early public remarks he emphasized transparency and the church’s zero-tolerance policy, saying, “We need to work together to make sure that we’re doing all we can to protect our children.”¹²

The Fee Fight, and Why It Doesn’t Change Survivor Payouts

By December 2025, legal and professional fees in the bankruptcy had passed $52.7 million. The archdiocese’s lead counsel, Jones Walker, had been paid more than $16.1 million, excluding roughly 20% withheld by the court. Troutman Pepper, representing the official creditors’ committee, received $5.65 million, and Pachulski Stang received $5.62 million. Financial advisors, accountants, and other professionals took in more than $22 million combined.¹³

Attorney Soren Gisleson, who represents dozens of survivors outside the official committee, called the fees “outrageous” and argued his clients had standing as creditors to challenge them. On March 10, 2026, Judge Grabill ruled that these survivors lacked standing. Because the settlement trust is fixed at $230 million regardless of what professionals are paid, cutting fees would benefit the archdiocese, not survivors.¹⁴ The court retained its own authority to review final fee applications, with an evidentiary hearing scheduled for May 2026.

What Claimants Should Watch Next

Three dates matter in the near term. The August 6–7, 2026 evidentiary hearing will address specific disputed claims. Fall 2026 remains the trustee’s working estimate for the first round of distributions, though it is not a firm date. The September 17, 2026 status conference will cover the archdiocese’s compliance with the non-monetary reforms.

Survivors with pending claims should keep contact information current with Donlin Recano and watch for a mailed notice from the Settlement Trustee. That notice will start the 30-day clock on the reconsideration window and will contain the individual point score and preliminary distribution amount.⁵

1
Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones. Bankruptcy Court Confirms Consensual Reorganization Plan for the Archdiocese of New Orleans
2
NOLA.com. Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors Archdiocese
3
SNAP Network. Archdiocese of New Orleans Finalizes $152M Sale of Christopher Homes Apartments
4
Angeion Group. Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
5
ANO Settlement Trust. ANO Settlement Trust
6
WWLTV. Church’s Proposed Settlement With Abuse Survivors Lays Out Points System
7
FOX 8 Live. Clergy Abuse Survivors Await Settlement Payments Months After Bankruptcy Approval
8
Angeion Group. Archdiocese of New Orleans Bankruptcy Dockets
9
Archdiocese of New Orleans. Approved Disclosure Statement
10
EWTN News. Archbishop Checchio Takes Helm in New Orleans
11
The Guardian. New Orleans Archbishop Aymond Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors
12
FOX 8 Live. One on One: Archbishop Checchio Discusses His New Role
13
BishopAccountability.org. New Orleans Church Bankruptcy Case
14
Chapter 11 Cases. New Orleans Archdiocese Abuse Survivors Lose Standing to Contest Attorneys Fees