Jehovah's Witnesses and Child Sex Abuse - Lawsuits

Lawsuits

In a press release dated November 21, 2007, Jehovah's Witnesses' Office of Public Information stated:

In the United States, over 80,000 elders currently serve in over 12,300 congregations … During the last 100 years, only eleven elders have been sued for child abuse in thirteen lawsuits filed in the United States; In seven of these lawsuits against the elders, accusations against the Watchtower Society itself were dismissed by the courts.

In 2004, a Canadian court awarded CAD$5000 to a plaintiff for the negligence of an elder who failed to follow the official policy of the church. However, the court dismissed charges against the Watchtower Society, and directed the plaintiff to pay the Watchtower Society's legal fees amounting to CAD$142,000.

In 2007 during a ground-breaking trial motion in the Napa, California court against the Watchtower Society, victims' lawyers convinced the court that 'ecclesiastical privilege' does not supersede the legal obligation of clergy to report child sex abuse to secular authorities. The Watchtower Society paid an undisclosed amount without admitting wrongdoing in an out-of-court settlement with 16 unnamed victims of alleged sexual abuse within the religion. According to court documents obtained by NBC News, one plaintiff was awarded over US$780,000.

Newspapers have reported that subpoenaed elders decline to testify against accused penitents, citing the confidentiality of penitent-clergy privilege. However elders did not object to testifying once a specific matter of penitent-clergy privilege had been adjudicated.

In June 2012, a California court ordered the Watch Tower Society to pay more than US$20 million in compensation and punitive damages to a woman who, as a child, was allegedly abused by a member. The court found that congregation elders, following the policies of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, contributed to the abuse. Lawyers for the Society said that they would appeal the ruling, calling the decision "unprecedented" and denying responsibility for abuse. In the post-trial motion, the Watch Tower Society's attorney stated in a court memorandum that no United States court has previously found its conduct or policy regarding sex abuse to be unlawful, claiming that the Watch Tower Society's reprehensibility is "very low" if any. The court reduced the Watch Tower Society's total liability to US$10 million, stating that the elders as agents of the Watch Tower Society failed to disclose to other parents regarding the confession of the molester who inappropriately touched his step daughter, adding that the reprehensibility is of "medium range".