Favorable Settlement & Key Discovery Rulings on First Amendment/Penitential Privileged Documents

We obtained a favorable settlement in a sexual abuse claim against a major religious organization where the plaintiff’s father perpetrated the abuse. The religious organization had no knowledge of any abuse until after the abuse had ended. The demand was seven figures, but after we filed a summary judgment motion, the case settled for mid six figures. Plaintiff’s counsel sought highly intrusive and overbroad discovery of the religious organization’s confidential files of completely unrelated third parties, including privileged penitential communications. The court denied plaintiff’s attempts to obtain this discovery.