Fallout over abuse settlement continues

The allegations dropped a bomb on the nearly finalized legal settlement, leaving county attorneys and plaintiffs lawyers scrambling to figure out the best path forward.

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DOWNTOWN LA Law Group has about 2,700 clients in L.A. County's $4-billion sex abuse settlement.

(CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times)

Some have called for the county to get out of the settlement half a year after announcing it. Technically, it can. The settlement agreement, reviewed by The Times, has a clause that allows the county to pull out unless all but 120 of the plaintiffs agree to the terms — a number attorneys could almost certainly surpass with more than 11,000 plaintiffs.

But the county does not appear to be relishing the thought of blowing up a settlement that took months of negotiations, countless hours in a courtroom and one can only guess how much in billable attorney hours. Many of these cases, attorneys for the county warn, could cost tens of millionsinatrial. Clearingthem all at once for $4 billion could, believe it or not, end up sounding like a bargain.