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The Boy Scouts are organized much like any other corporation or business. There is a national “headquarters” (Boy Scouts of America) that, although incorporated in Delaware, is based in Dallas. Under the national office are four regions (Northeast, Southern, Central, and Western) which, in turn, oversee 272 local councils. Each region and council, as well as national headquarters, is a separate corporation (usually as an LLC, or Limited Liability Corporation) and is chartered by the state where it maintains an office. In an LLC the officers of a corporation are not personally responsible for matters such as corporate debt but they and the LLC can be named as defendants on civil lawsuits, particularly when there are allegations that the LLC and/or its officers failed to properly supervise its employees or failed to exercise reasonable care in protecting others.
Every Boy Scout council is chartered or rechartered each year by the Boy Scouts of America. According to lawsuits already moving through the courts, when an allegation of sexual abuse was reported to a local council, the council responded by either 1) failing to investigate the allegation; 2) making only an incomplete investigation, or 3) if the investigation revealed that sexual abuse the incident was “kept quiet” and not reported to local law enforcement agency! Many of these lawsuits further accuse the national office of the Boy Scouts of America of failing to promptly respond to reports of sexual abuse.
According to our sexual abuse lawyer, if a local council failed to respond to a report of an adult (scoutmaster, counselor, etc) sexually abusing a child the local council could be named as a defendant in a sexual abuse lawsuit. Further, at the national level, if the Boy Scouts of America was aware of sexual abuse reports and failed to act, it could also be named in a sexual abuse lawsuit.
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As you can see, Boy Scout sexual abuse lawsuits can be a very complex matter. It became even more complicated when the National Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
If your son was sexually abused by an adult scoutmaster or counselor, you are going to need the assistance of an experienced Boy Scout sexual abuse lawyer. Such a lawyer can be located at The Doan Law Firm, a national law practice with offices located throughout the country.
When you contact The Doan Law Firm, there is never a charge for our sexual abuse lawyer to personally review your case or to discuss the legal avenues that may be open to you. Should you decide that a lawsuit is in both your and your son’s best interests and that you would like for us to represent you in court, we are willing to assume full responsibility for all aspects of preparing your case for trial in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of the final settlement that we are prepared to win for you.