MacLaren Hall Settlement: $4 Billion Payout Stalled by Fraud

The MacLaren Hall settlement is a $4 billion agreement between Los Angeles County and more than 6,800 people who say they were sexually abused as children at MacLaren Children’s Center and other county juvenile facilities, approved by the Board of Supervisors on April 29, 2025.¹²³

What MacLaren Hall Was

MacLaren Children’s Center was a county-run emergency shelter in El Monte that housed children removed from their homes while they waited for foster placement or court hearings. It ran from 1961 to 2003 and at its peak held as many as 300 children at a time.⁴ Former residents have described a facility ringed with barbed wire and floodlights that functioned more like a detention center, and have reported sexual assault by staff and other children, beatings, overmedication, and retaliation against anyone who tried to report abuse.⁵

In 1984, five employees were arrested for sexually abusing children and selling them drugs, and the Board of Supervisors launched a grand jury investigation the following year.⁶ The county did not begin criminal background checks on MacLaren staff until roughly two years before the facility closed; when it finally did, at least 17 employees were found to have disqualifying criminal records and four more resigned before their checks could be finished.⁵ MacLaren Hall closed in June 2003 as part of the settlement in Katie A. v. Bontá.⁷

How Survivors Got Back Into Court

For decades, most former residents had no legal path forward because the statute of limitations on their claims had run. California Assembly Bill 218, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 13, 2019, changed that.⁸ The law extended the statute of limitations for childhood sexual assault claims to age 40, expanded the legal definition from “childhood sexual abuse” to “childhood sexual assault,” and allowed treble damages where a defendant was found to have covered up an assault.⁹

Just as important, AB 218 opened a three-year revival window starting January 1, 2020, letting survivors file claims the old deadlines had barred.⁹ Thousands filed. All told, more than 11,000 lawsuits were brought against Los Angeles County, and the caseload has since grown past 14,000.¹⁰

What the $4 Billion Deal Covers

The tentative agreement announced on April 4, 2025 resolves more than 6,800 claims, with alleged abuse dating back to 1959 and concentrated in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s at MacLaren and various Probation Department facilities. Individual award amounts are not flat. An independent team of allocation experts sets each award based on the facts of the claim.¹¹

Plaintiffs are represented by a coalition of firms including Slater Slater Schulman LLP, ACTS LAW, Boucher LLP, McNicholas & McNicholas, Becker Law Group, and Herman Law, with civil rights attorney Ben Crump joining as co-counsel.¹²¹³ The county is funding the payout through cash reserves, judgment obligation bonds, and departmental budget cuts, with payments scheduled to stretch through fiscal year 2050–51. Most county departments absorbed 3% budget reductions to help cover the cost.¹¹¹⁴

The Second Settlement

The $4 billion deal does not cover every pending case. On October 28, 2025, the Board of Supervisors approved a second agreement of up to $828 million covering an additional 414 plaintiffs.¹⁵ That second settlement carries tougher anti-fraud terms: every claim must undergo extensive fraud analysis, and any plaintiff found to have submitted a fraudulent claim is removed from the settlement and receives nothing. A retired judge serves as the independent allocator.¹⁶

Even with both deals, the county still faces an estimated 5,000 or more unresolved claims as of early 2026.¹⁶

Why Payments Are Stalled

In early 2026, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman opened a criminal investigation into the settlement. His office alleges that as many as four out of five claims in the $4 billion agreement may be fraudulent, with some plaintiffs allegedly paid by recruiters or law firms to file false claims, and others said never to have been housed at the facilities where they said they were abused.²¹⁷

On June 10, 2026, Hochman filed an ex parte motion in Los Angeles Superior Court asking Judge Lawrence P. Riff to freeze all settlement payments through December 31, 2026, arguing that distributing funds during an active investigation would “hamper his investigation by complicating witness cooperation and obscuring financial trails.”¹⁸ Judge Riff ordered a stay on payments pending at least a June 25, 2026 hearing.³

Plaintiffs’ attorneys pushed back. Patrick McNicholas, one of the lead counsel for survivors, argued the payments are already structured over five years, giving investigators time to pursue fraud without halting distributions altogether.² County counsel said the settlement should move forward while acknowledging that only a judge can formally halt payments.¹⁹

State Bar Charges Against DTLA Law Group

A separate front opened against the Downtown LA Law Group (DTLA), which represents roughly 25% of settlement plaintiffs.²⁰ On June 1, 2026, the California State Bar filed professional misconduct charges against three DTLA attorneys: founding partner Farid Yaghoubtil (16 counts), founding partner Daniel Azizi (11 counts), and litigation attorney Igor Fradkin (4 counts). Former partner Salar Hendizadeh had been charged separately in March 2026. The charges focus on practicing law in states where the attorneys were not licensed and charging illegal fees. The State Bar is also investigating allegations that DTLA paid recruiters to sign up clients and that some claims were fabricated. The firm denies wrongdoing.²¹

What This Means if You’re Waiting to Be Paid

The stay affects general distributions. As of January 2026, the county had agreed to move forward with a $400 million disbursement covering claims that had already been validated, but broader payments remained on hold.²⁰

The delay has real financial consequences for people who borrowed against expected payouts. Andrea Proctor, 45, who sued in 2022 over alleged abuse at MacLaren Hall, borrowed $15,000 from a Los Angeles-based legal funding company called High Rise Financial; by early 2026, interest had pushed her debt above $34,000. Krista Hubbard, another MacLaren survivor, borrowed $20,000 while homeless and now owes nearly $43,000. Both said the same lender offered to buy out their future settlement payments entirely. One attorney involved in the cases warned that with the delays, some victims “will die before they get paid.”²⁰

Reforms and Oversight

Alongside the settlement, LA County proposed institutional changes: a countywide hotline for reporting allegations against county employees, expedited investigations with independent outside review, and a “Zero Tolerance” policy requiring termination and law enforcement referral for any employee found to have committed abuse.¹¹ The county has also updated background check procedures for employees and foster parents and commissioned an outside law firm to review its policies on childhood sexual assault claims.¹

A court is considering whether to place the LA County juvenile division into receivership over ongoing management failures. The Probation Department is operating with roughly 700 vacancies, a staffing shortage of nearly 30%. Union representatives and other critics have called on the California State Auditor to conduct a forensic audit of the settlement process.²² Two cases related to the underlying abuse allegations have been referred to the District Attorney for potential criminal prosecution of individual perpetrators.¹¹

1
The Imprint. Los Angeles $4 Billion Settlement for Survivors of Sexual Assault
2
Los Angeles Times. LA County DA Claims Four in Five Cases in $4 Billion Sex Abuse Payout May Be Fraudulent
3
Los Angeles Times. Sex Abuse Settlement Los Angeles District Attorney Victim Payouts
4
The Imprint. Notorious Los Angeles Children’s Shelter Was Once a House of Horrors, Lawsuit Alleges
5
PR Newswire. Twelve Former Residents of MacLaren Hall Sue Los Angeles County
6
Levy Law. MacLaren Childrens Center Sexual Abuse Lawsuits
7
Bazelon Center. Katie A. v. Bonta
8
Zero Abuse Project. Joelle Casteix AB 218 Statement
9
LegiScan. AB 218 Bill Text
10
Los Angeles Times. LA County Sex Abuse AB 218
11
Los Angeles County. LA County Reaches $4 Billion Tentative Settlement in Thousands of Sexual Abuse Cases
12
Law.com. A Landmark $4 Billion Settlement for Child Sex Abuse Victims From LA County
13
Ben Crump Law. Ben Crump Joins Slater Slater Schulman Representing Survivors of Sexual Abuse
14
Bond Buyer. Judgment Bonds Follow Window for California Sex Abuse Claims
15
NBC Los Angeles. LA County Officials Approve $828 Million Abuse Claims Settlement
16
Los Angeles County. LA County Announces Tentative Settlement of Additional AB 218 Cases and Heightened Anti-Fraud Provisions
17
ABC7. LA County DA Nathan Hochman Calls to Delay Sex Abuse Settlement Payments
18
Los Angeles County District Attorney. District Attorney Hochman Files Application to Intervene in LA County Child Sex Abuse
19
The Recorder. LA DA Calls for New Pause on $4B Sex Abuse Settlement Payouts, Citing Potentially Significant Fraud
20
Los Angeles Times. LA Sex Abuse Lawsuit Investigations and Payouts
21
Los Angeles Times. DTLA Law Firm California State Bar Charges
22
CalMatters. Juvenile Sex Abuse Settlement California