On 23 November 2015 the Truth, Justice & Healing Council released guidelines for Catholic Church authorities in responding to civil claims for child sexual abuse.
The guidelines which will come into effect on 1 January 2016, will apply to all church authorities who have signed up to the Truth Justice and Healing Council and can be located here.
While in a lot of ways the guidelines codify a commonsense approach to handling claims of child sexual abuse; such as not causing unnecessary delay, acting consistently and avoiding unnecessary litigation, there are also a number of more progressive requirements.
These include:
- that assistance must be provided to a claimant in identifying a correct respondent to the legal proceedings; and
- that a respondent does not rely on statutory limitation periods as a defence unless there are other non church defendants involved in the claim or a lapse of time has a burdensome effect on the church authority that is so serious that the church authority considers that a fair trial would not be possible.
While in most instances the obligations in the guidelines will already have been adopted by those conducting the defence of child sexual abuse claims, given that they come into effect from 1 January, 2016, now is a good opportunity to refer to them to ensure that "best practice" is being implemented in the carriage of these claims.
Although these are only guidelines, there will be a community expectation that they are strictly adhered to, so ignore them at your own peril.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.