OCC takes on Boy Scouts — and wins.
Most child abuse cases settle before the trial begins, due to high emotions for the victims and the fear of public exposure for the perpetrators and the organizations that enabled the abuse. But every once in a while, a defendant refuses to recognize its role in the abuse and the case must be tried before a jury. Such was the situation in 2010 as a case against the Boy Scouts of America went to trial before a Portland jury. After six weeks of trial and intense national media coverage, attorneys Kelly Clark and Gilion Dumas — along with the entire OCC trial team and our sometime colleague Paul Mones — won a verdict, including punitive damages, of nearly $20 million, at the time the largest single plaintiff child abuse verdict in history.