What happened to you in an Archdiocese of Los Angeles parish or school was not okay.

If a priest, or a brother, or a teacher, or a coach did something to you that you've never quite set down, and it was here (an altar server in Downey, say, or a kid at a parish school in Leimert Park or Sylmar, or a student at one of its high schools, anywhere from the San Fernando Valley up to Ventura and Santa Barbara), then yes, this page is about you. Three counties, 287 parishes, more than 230 parish and archdiocesan schools. And a list. The Archdiocese keeps it itself, has since a 2004 report, and it isn't closed: clergy it calls credibly or publicly accused, more than 350 names on it now.

WatchingThe $880 million settlement is paid out, in full, as of April 1, 2026. What we are watching now is the criminal case against a Downey priest, filed in April 2025 and still pending as far as any public record shows, and any new complaint naming the Archbishop. Updated September 15, 2026.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

This applies to you no matter what

It was forty, fifty years ago. So were most of the 1,353 claims the Archdiocese settled in 2024; over fifty years old, by the Archdiocese's own description, some from the 1940s. Whether the clock has run for you turns on your birth year and on when you first connected what happened to the harm. Details below.
The priest is dead. On the Archdiocese's own list, 120 of the names were already marked deceased by 2018. The cases were never really against the men. They're against the Archdiocese, which is still on Wilshire Boulevard, still solvent, and never went into bankruptcy while six California dioceses did.
It wasn't a priest. A brother, a nun, a teacher, a coach, a parent volunteer. The 2024 settlement covered claims against 'priests, other clergy, women religious and lay people', in the Archdiocese's words. One complaint, from 2014, named the Archdiocese over a volunteer softball coach at St. Didacus in Sylmar. The Transfiguration complaint from 2025 names a nun, and a monsignor and a priest with her.
You looked for his name on the list and it isn't there. Well, the list is clergy, and the Archdiocese adds a name only after its own review calls the allegation credible, or plausible where the man is dead or gone. Six of the men named over the years were later exonerated, by the Archdiocese's own count. A list is a floor, not a ceiling, and a teacher or a coach was never going to be on it anyway.
You told someone at the school, years ago, and it went nowhere. The woman who sued over Transfiguration in February 2025 says exactly that: two teachers and the principal, and no investigation. It's part of her complaint, not a mark against it.
You live in Nevada or Arizona now, or anywhere; the kids who grew up in Downey and Pacoima and Oxnard mostly aren't there anymore. Or it isn't you you're asking for but someone who can't ask for themselves. Reach out anyway. Plenty of people do.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles lawsuits: what the public record says, and when

None of this is ours. It's the Los Angeles County courts, the District Attorney, the Archdiocese's own statements and list, and the reporters who covered them, and every line links to where it came from. We don't add to it. A complaint is an allegation, a name on the Archdiocese's list is that list's finding, and the Archdiocese has not admitted liability in any pending case; its settlements were made without admission. Nobody on this page has been convicted of anything: the Downey priest is charged and has pleaded not guilty. And because it matters for the first question above: the records here name Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Downey, Transfiguration in Leimert Park and St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge. Every other parish and school on this page is listed because the same Archdiocese ran it. No separate record on them is cited here.

July 16, 2007

Judge Haley Fromholz of the Los Angeles County Superior Court approved a $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese and 508 people, the morning the first of fifteen trials had been set to start. About $1.3 million a claimant, on average; $250 million of it the Archdiocese's own cash, the rest from insurers and religious orders. The claims went back seventy years and involved 221 priests, brothers, lay teachers and other church employees. The Archdiocese had already paid more than $114 million in earlier settlements. Cardinal Mahony called the Michael Baker case the one that troubled him most. Los Angeles Times, via BishopAccountability.

January 31, 2013

Six years after the settlement, the personnel files it had promised finally came out: thousands of pages from the files of 89 accused priests, under the 2007 agreement. The same day, Archbishop Gomez wrote that Cardinal Mahony "will no longer have any administrative or public duties" and accepted Bishop Thomas Curry's request to step down as regional bishop of Santa Barbara over his decisions as vicar for clergy. Gomez called the files "brutal and painful reading." Then, a year on, Mahony was deposed and acknowledged he'd told an aide not to give police a list of the altar boys who had served with Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera. His handwritten note: "We cannot give such a list for no cause whatsoever." NPR.

December 6, 2018

Fifty-four more names went onto the Archdiocese's list of clergy accused of sexual misconduct with minors, its first big update since 2008; roughly 354 now. A name went on, the Archdiocese said, where there was even "a single plausible report of sexual misconduct against the priest which could not be confirmed since the priest died or left the archdiocese long before the allegation was received." Of the whole list, 120 were dead and six had been exonerated. Archbishop Gomez: "I am humbled by your courage and ashamed at how the church has let you down." ABC7 Los Angeles.

December 23, 2019

The first of six complaints under the new California law, captioned John DOE LA 1002 v. Doe 1, a Corporation Sole, et al., was e-filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, case 19STCV46652, against St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, the Capuchin order that runs it and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles together. It alleges abuse by a Capuchin priest stationed at the school from 1970 to 1995 who is on the Archdiocese's list. Counsel announced it four days later. That school has its own page here, and its record lives there, not on this one. Jeff Anderson & Associates, counsel of record.

October 16, 2024

The Archdiocese announced an $880 million global settlement of 1,353 claims filed after the 2020 to 2022 window, the largest by a single archdiocese in this country. It would be paid, Archbishop Gomez said, from archdiocesan reserves and other assets, loans, and what religious orders named in the suits could be expected to contribute; not from parish or school donations. Most of the allegations were more than fifty years old, some from the 1940s, and they ran against "priests, other clergy, women religious and lay people." Archdiocesan officials said a bankruptcy filing "was not a financially sound solution." With 2007 counted, the Archdiocese has now paid more than $1.5 billion. Angelus News (Archdiocese of Los Angeles).

February 3, 2025

L.G., as the court papers call her, sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Her complaint alleges that a monsignor, a priest and a nun molested her, more than once, between 1998 and 2005 (she was 8 to 14) at the Church of the Transfiguration in Leimert Park and its school; that she told two teachers and the principal; and that no investigation followed. The Archdiocese answered that the claims "have not been found to be credible" and that it had no record of her at either place. On May 29, the two sides told Judge Tiana Murillo they'd reached a conditional resolution; terms undisclosed, dismissal expected by September 1. MyNewsLA (City News Service).

April 10, 2025

A charge, not a conviction; hold that in mind while you read this one. On April 2, by the Archdiocese's own account, a report came in about Father Jaime Arriaga Pedroza, 41, ordained just the year before (2024) and serving at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Downey; it says he was out that same day, law enforcement was told, and he turned himself in on the 3rd. Arraigned the 7th. Not-guilty plea. Held without bail. Then on the 10th District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the case, People v. Arriaga Pedroza, 25CJCF01837, six felony counts in all: one of assault with intent to commit a lewd act upon a child, five of lewd act upon a child aged 14 or 15 by a person at least 10 years older, the dates running February 8 through March 22, 2025, six weeks. Preliminary hearing set for September 15, 2025, and, again, he is presumed innocent. Los Angeles County District Attorney.

April 1, 2026

The Archdiocese made the final payment on the $880 million settlement, by its own account: an initial payment in August 2025, the rest on April 1, 2026. Its statement says most of the cases involve clergy who have died or are out of ministry, "with the alleged abuse having occurred in the 1970s and earlier." It was a civil settlement, not a bankruptcy plan: no bar date, no court order cutting off anyone who wasn't in it. Archdiocese of Los Angeles, AB 218 settlement statement.

We checked this on September 15, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from April 1, 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in an Archdiocese of Los Angeles lawsuit

Not the priest, or not only him. The defendant in every civil case above is the Archdiocese, which in a California courtroom is The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, a corporation sole. The one at 3424 Wilshire that assigned these men, moved them between parishes, hired and licensed the teachers and coaches at its schools, kept the files and, so the complaints and its own files say, kept quiet. The theory isn't complicated. Put an adult in charge of children and you have to watch him. When a kid says something, you have to act. The Transfiguration complaint alleges the school was told and did nothing. The files released in 2013 showed a cardinal who, by his own later testimony, kept a list of altar boys from the police, and who wrote in 1986 that bringing one priest back to Los Angeles "might very well" get the Archdiocese sued. Where the record shows what the Archdiocese knew, the case is against the institution. California's statute goes a step further: a defendant proven to have covered up childhood sexual assault can be made to pay up to three times the damages. Proven is the word. That is a lawyer's job, not a promise on a web page.

And it has the money. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has not filed for bankruptcy. Not in 2007, not in 2024 when it said a filing wasn't financially sound, and not since, while Santa Rosa, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Fresno all did. It paid $660 million and then $880 million, the last of it on April 1, 2026, out of reserves, loans, insurers and the religious orders that were sued alongside it. So the payer is there. A religious order that ran your school (the Capuchins at St. Francis, say) is usually sued with it. St. Francis High School has its own page here; Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Downey and Transfiguration in Leimert Park are named in the records above. If yours isn't, answer the questions anyway and say where. The Archdiocese ran it. That is the point.

Your deadline: the California statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse in a parish or Catholic school

You have until you turn 40. Or five years from the day you understood what it did to you, if that comes later. That's California's rule for anything done to a minor before 2024, and the section is Code of Civil Procedure 340.11 if you want to read it. It's also why there's a birth-year question on this page. Born in 1987 or later, and the door is open on age alone, at any parish or school the Archdiocese ran, in any of its three counties. Born earlier, and it turns on discovery, which is a conversation, not a date. The Archdiocese is not a public body, so there's no government claim to file first, and the statute says none is needed anyway.

Here's the catch, and it's the whole reason the birth year matters. The same law opened a window, January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022, when anyone could file at any age; the 1,353 claims the Archdiocese settled in 2024 came through it. That window is closed. So today, if you were born before 1987, the fortieth birthday has come or is near, and what's left is the discovery rule plus one more thing the statute asks of anyone over 40 who sues an institution rather than the man: a showing that the Archdiocese knew or had reason to know, or failed to take reasonable steps. Plus certificates of merit from your lawyer and a licensed therapist, reviewed by a judge before the Archdiocese is even served. It's a real path. It is also a path a lawyer has to look at before anyone can tell you yes or no, and we won't pretend otherwise. (One more thing. Anything from January 1, 2024 onward is a different story entirely, and a shorter one: the newer section, Code of Civil Procedure 340.1, puts no deadline on it. The Downey case would fall there.)

Plainly, then. The 1990s or after, at any Archdiocese of Los Angeles parish or school: you almost certainly still have time. The 1980s or before: you may. It's worth one call to find out, and a lawyer decides it, not us.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never said it out loud. Not to your wife, your husband, a priest. Nobody.
You don't have a word for what it was. Half of you is sure it wouldn't even count.
You stayed in the Church. Went back to that parish. Sent your own kids to that school.
It was a brother, a nun, a teacher, a coach, a volunteer, another student. Not a priest.
The man's name is on nobody's list. Neither were 54 others, until December 2018.
You already got something from the Archdiocese, whether in 2007, in 2024, or out of the claims program it ran from 2019. Say so on the call, first thing. It changes what a lawyer can do. It doesn't end the conversation, though.

Parishes and schools covered

Only three places on this page come with a record attached, and we've said which: Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Downey, church and school both; Transfiguration in Leimert Park, church and school; and St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, where the Archdiocese is a named co-defendant even though the Capuchins, not the Archdiocese, run the place (St. Francis has its own page, /st-francis-high-school-la-canada-survivors). Everywhere else is here for one reason, that the same Archdiocese ran it, and we cite no separate record. Which still means any parish, any parish school, any archdiocesan high school it runs or ever ran in Los Angeles, Ventura or Santa Barbara County, whatever the year: 287 parishes, 211 parish and archdiocesan elementary schools, 26 parish and archdiocesan high schools, the missions, the youth programs, San Pedro up to Santa Maria. (Orange County split off in 1976 as its own diocese, and has its own page here. Who answers for the years before that is a lawyer's question.) Yours isn't named? That means nobody has filed on it, or we haven't found it. It does not mean nothing happened. Answer the questions and say where.

Questions people are asking

I was born before 1987, so has California's statute of limitations for child sexual abuse already run out on me?

Not necessarily, and here's the shape of it. For anything before 2024 you've got until your 40th birthday, or five years from when you discovered the harm if that lands later; for anything on or after January 1, 2024 there's no time limit at all. The window that let anyone file, any age, shut on December 31, 2022. And if you're over 40 and suing the Archdiocese rather than the man, there's one more showing, that it knew or should have. A lawyer decides that part.

Can I still sue the Archdiocese of Los Angeles now that the $880 million settlement is paid?

The settlement resolved the 1,353 claims that were in it. It was not a bankruptcy plan, so there's no bar date and nobody who wasn't in it was cut off. A new complaint went in against the Archdiocese in February 2025, four months after the settlement was announced. Whether you can depends on when you were born and, if before 1987, on when you connected what happened to the harm and what the Archdiocese knew. That's what the questions above sort out.

The priest is dead. Can I still bring a claim?

Yes. The claims that matter are against the Archdiocese, and it is very much still here and not in bankruptcy. Most of the men behind the 2024 settlement had died or left ministry, the Archdiocese itself says, and most of the abuse was from the 1970s or earlier; it settled all 1,353 claims regardless.

I already got a settlement from the Archdiocese. What then?

Then say so on the call, first thing. Five hundred and eight people were paid in 2007 and 1,353 claims in 2024 to 2026, and a settlement comes with a release. A release usually closes the door on the claim it covers, not on everything, and a lawyer has to read yours before telling you anything. It doesn't make the call pointless.

How much is an Archdiocese of Los Angeles settlement?

We won't put a number on yours. Be wary of anyone who does. What's on this page is public: $660 million among 508 people in 2007, about $1.3 million each on average, and $880 million on 1,353 claims in 2024. Each was one set of facts and one moment in time. Yours is another, and a lawyer will tell you plainly after they've looked.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Nothing, here. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed California attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.