LogFAQs > #979878374

That issue is actually somewhat nuanced. California passed a similar kind of "lookback" period for sexual crimes to be brought forward though in our case it was by the end of 2022, and someone made a claim against the pastor of my church, a claim that literally was not possible. The allegation was that my pastor committed abuse against this John Doe before he even moved to california or lived in the town in question or pastored at the church that the abuse allegedly occurred in (and actually at that point the church was located in a different part of town). Not only was it false, but there's no physical way for it to have been true. But if you are spamming allegations (presumably in hopes for a quiet settlement??) then I guess you don't care about any of that, and that's what this guy seemed to be doing.

But every step of the process involved delays, largely waiting on the plaintiff (or his counsel) to actually provide any kind of substantive information. But it was a whole lot of "plaintiff and lawyer did not show up for court appearance, reschedule in 6 weeks". "Still no word from plaintiff, reschedule in 6 weeks". "Plaintiff's lawyer dropped plaintiff and now plaintiff needs additional time to find new representation, reschedule in 6 weeks". All in all the process took over a year and my pastor paid tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees that he will not get back, even now that the case was dismissed WITHOUT prejudice.

Now why his lawyers (who I guess he was referred to by the church district? idk) required so much money for not having to actually do anything? That I don't know. I'm guessing the entire process could have been handled much more cost effectively, but the big winners in the whole equation were the legal counsel so maybe they weren't incentivized to speed the process along, but the entire situation was shitty and basically put him half of his annual salary in the hole.

This isn't a situation where he discussed the issue from the pulpit to seek out financial assistance or anything. It's something I found out about because I'm family friends with the pastor and his kids so I only knew about it from other channels. Once I found out about it I pulled up all the civil court documents because they are public record so I could follow along with the case' progress throughout the year.

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Which is all to say that people who have been the victim of sexual crimes should absolutely be given the opportunity to have their day in court, but it's also a system that I have personally seen abused. And the man who filed the false suit? Nothing will happen to him. My pastor could potentially file countersuit for legal fees/damages, but then he'll be out even MORE lawyer fees only for a judgement to be levied against someone who realistically will never be able to pay off the debt. It just sucked all around.