Diocese Bankruptcy Raises Controversy

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 2, 2007 at 10:03 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

We speak to California Western School of Law professor Scott Ehrlich about the latest news on the San Diego Catholic Diocese's bankruptcy case. Ehrlich talks about the bankruptcy proceedings that wer

Alan Ray (Guest Host): Days before the first of a series of civil trials over alleged sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of San Diego filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The common wisdom that was that this action would be detrimental to the plaintiffs, and would give the diocese a "soft landing" -- if not a free skate.

San Diego was not the first diocese to file for bankruptcy, but the fifth. And apparently earlier cases have actually been resolved fairly well -- for the plaintiffs. That may seem counterintuitive, so we've got a lawyer to help make sense of it.

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Guest

Scott Ehrlich, a bankruptcy law professor at California Western School of Law