Harvard University Press Releases "Holding Bishops Accountable":

ALBANY, NY (07/25/2008)(readMedia)-- According to recent news reports, an estimated 13,000 victims have alleged abuse against 5,400 priests in America, making the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy the most acute crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation.

In his latest book, Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse published by Harvard University Press (2008; 286 pages), Albany Law School Professor Timothy D. Lytton shows how the litigation strategy of plaintiffs' lawyers gave rise to a widespread belief that the real problem was not the actions of individual priests but rather the church's massive institutional failure.

The book documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse only under the pressure of private lawsuits.

"Although the tort system is more often maligned than celebrated, it was the work of plaintiffs' lawyers that brought the scandal to light in the first place," said Lytton, who is also editor of Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts (Michigan University Press 2005) and co-author of Jurisprudence, Cases and Materials: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law (Lexis 2006).

"Pleadings, discovery documents, and depositions in hundreds of cases during the course of more than two decades have provided most of the information underlying media coverage of the scandal," added the Yale University Law School graduate. "Lawsuits have fed journalists a steady supply of compelling stories of both personal suffering and official wrongdoing, and they have provided a defense against potential libel claims and political cover to criticize powerful church officials."

As the New Haven, CT native deftly demonstrates, the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.

"Lytton hits the nail on the head with this provocative book about the institutional failure of the Roman Catholic Church that led to the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of innocent children," noted Jeff Anderson, a trial attorney who specializes in representing and fighting for victims and survivors of sexual abuse nationwide. "Never before has the American tort system played such an influential role in educating the public and encouraging massive change in the way children are protected."

For more information, please go to www.albanylaw.edu/lytton.

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