Los Angeles county officials on Tuesday approved a $4bn payout to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959.
The agreement reached on April 4 far surpasses a $2.6bn settlement reached in 2022 with the Boy Scouts of America that was the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in US history at the time.
The county board of supervisors voted to approve the deal that settles lawsuits filed by thousands of people who alleged they were mistreated and sexually abused in foster care and juvenile detention facilities.
The plaintiffs were able to sue because of a California law that took effect in 2020 and suspended the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse victims to bring cases for three years.
“While no amount of money can erase the horrors that they endured, this agreement acknowledges the profound harm inflicted on thousands of children over the course of decades,” Adam Slater, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement on Tuesday.