This week, Maryland’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee held an historic vote – to finally approve the passage of the Child Victim’s Act of 2023.  This bill would allow child victims of sexual abuse, clergy and otherwise, to bring a cause of action against their perpetrators and their institutional accomplices.  Most survivors can’t sue past the age of 38 under current Maryland law. And yet, research shows men and women reach their 50s on average before they fully confront childhood abuse.  The science of trauma-suppressed memories has been presented to the senate committees ..read more

Yesterday in Annapolis, the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard presentations by advocates for the reform of Maryland’s statute of limitations for survivors of child sexual assault.  I attended the hearing with my paralegal, Mary Beth Diaz, to support the survivors in their quest to achieve transparency, healing, and justice.  We met one of our clients there, David Lorenz, the Maryland State Director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). What’s The Issue With Maryland’s Current Statue Of Limitations? Simply put, a child victim of sexual abuse in Mar ..read more

Today The Baltimore Sun has chosen the survivors of sexual abuse and their supporters seeking to hold the Catholic Church accountable as the 2022 Marylanders of the Year.  Photographs of two of our pro bono clients, Michelle Stanton and Donna Vondenbosch, are prominently featured.  We could not be prouder of them, and all of the other survivors who have mustered the courage to stand up against public and private contempt, and their own demons, to make their voices heard. All of this comes against a backdrop of a four-year investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s office that i ..read more

Last week our legal team asked a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to release a sealed Grand Jury Report on pervasive, serial sexual abuse within the Baltimore Archdiocese.  We commend a leading Maryland State Senator for supporting a proposal to give childhood sexual assault and abuse survivors, including those victimized over decades by Archdiocese priests, the right to seek justice for their life-altering injuries. Specifically, we applaud State Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery), chair of the pivotal Judicial Proceedings Committee, who yesterday signaled his support for a reform measure simil ..read more

This afternoon Jenner Law and our co-counsel from Grant & Eisenhofer held a joint press conference, alongside sexual assault and abuse survivors, to announce our latest legal action on behalf of survivors of clergy abuse.  Our clients, survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and their advocates, are demanding the courts release a 456-page report detailing the history of allegations against priests and resulting coverup in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the fruit of a nearly four-year state investigation. Joining us at the press conference were three of our clients.  Gemma ..read more

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office is completing work on a four-year investigation of allegations of abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, committed by priests, teachers and other archdiocese employees.  The Archdiocese of Baltimore includes 153 parishes, 40 elementary schools and18 high schools. The Attorney General’s Office has now revealed that more than 600 young victims were subject to sexual abuse by the Archdiocese clergy, spanning a period of more than  80 years.  Abuse took place throughout the archdiocese’s nine Maryland counties ..read more