The Hartford Insurance Group has agreed to put $100 million on the table to resolve claims by people who say clergy or employees of the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused them. The payout, paired with a buyback of certain insurance policies, is built into a proposed bankruptcy reorganization that aims to compensate roughly 920 survivors with claims in the case.
According to The Daily Record, Hartford’s payment and policy buyback are detailed in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Maryland, making the company the first of the archdiocese’s insurers to strike such a deal. The filing describes the buyback as a core feature of a plan that would pool church funds with insurance proceeds to pay survivors, even as the broader terms of that plan remain under negotiation.
Paul Jan Zdunek, who chairs the committee representing survivors in the bankruptcy, called the agreement a central milestone, while survivor lawyer Teresa Lancaster said she appreciated the insurer stepping up with a realistic offer. As The Daily Record reports, survivors who opt into the deal would generally be barred from suing the archdiocese and related entities covered by the plan. However, they would keep the right to pursue claims against individual abusers.
How the deal would be structured
The archdiocese has previously floated a “form plan” that links a $33 million contribution from Catholic families with the transfer of insurance rights, with those insurance proceeds expected to provide most of the money survivors ultimately receive. As reported by the Catholic Review, that October 2025 proposal outlined the $33 million contribution and suggested insurers could kick in “hundreds of millions” more to seed a trust for survivors.
Next steps in the bankruptcy
The Hartford settlement still has to be folded into a final reorganization plan, which survivors will have the chance to vote on before a bankruptcy judge decides whether to confirm it. That confirmation process could take months and may be followed by appeals. Local reporting and court-appointed mediators say recent negotiations have narrowed the distance between the parties, and mediation is expected to continue as judges and lawyers work through the settlement paperwork.
For a deeper look at how the case reached this stage, including the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 filing in September 2023 and the latest mediation push, see coverage from CBS Baltimore.
Legal trade-offs for survivors
Under a typical confirmed bankruptcy plan, the legal releases baked into the settlement would block survivors from suing the institutions covered by the plan, including the archdiocese and affiliated entities that sign on. Survivors’ attorneys have fought those limits, which is why negotiations have focused intensely on both the size of the fund and who is paying into it, while keeping open the possibility of criminal charges or separate civil suits against individual abusers.
Local coverage has chronicled those tensions and the court’s effort to balance finality with survivors’ rights; see reporting from The Baltimore Banner for additional detail.
The Hartford agreement is the strongest signal so far that insurers may be prepared to shoulder a major share of any ultimate payout, but it does not bring the long and contentious case to a close. Expect more moves from other insurers, a formal creditor vote, and further court review in the weeks and months ahead as mediators work to turn this framework into a confirmed plan and get money flowing to survivors.
