according to the alameda county superior court register of actions, the society will be bringing post-trial motions in an effort to have the judgment against it reversed.
in the meantime, it applied to the court for a stay of enforcement of the judgment now in place.
this is for protection during the time the post-trial motions are argued.
"I'm no lawyer, but I have to imagine that has been tried in dozens of permutations by other corporations and the courts must be quite aware of it and know how to prevent it."
I hope you are right, but it's a religion and doesn't have the same kind of oversight. Nobody really knows what the assets are. If they try something, I hope it's found out and people go to jail.
im predicting a loss in both numbers in the us and western countries with significant drop in hours preached particularly in the usa.. commetns ?
?.
The Watchtower Society should apologize, admit there is a problem and reform. I can't see them doing that. Also, their sins have been so great that this could cause a mass exodus and could actually increase the number of lawsuits that they have to face.
My guess is that they will do little in response to this except try protect their assets as best they can. There may even be a few in power who try to take the money and run.
It might not be too many years until the Watchtower headquarters becomes nothing more than a single website with a few downloads and a donate button.
according to the alameda county superior court register of actions, the society will be bringing post-trial motions in an effort to have the judgment against it reversed.
in the meantime, it applied to the court for a stay of enforcement of the judgment now in place.
this is for protection during the time the post-trial motions are argued.
It seems that the society would have to move a lot of assets to be unable to pay the judgement, but I wouldn't put anything past them. Didn't they do something similar in France a while back when they were being asked to pay taxes?
I could almost see them moving whatever they could out of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York and then declare bankruptcy for just that corporation.
unless you've been living under a rock you know that a court in california has found the wts guilty of negligence in covering over child abuse, and the wts has ben ordered to pay $20 million + to the victim.. also, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that there are thousands, probably 10's of thousands, of similar victims of wts coverups regarding sexual abuse still out there.. now that the precedent has been set - now that the wts was not able to settle out of court, and has been found guilty - now that this is international news, and literally millions of people are aware of it - it seems that now may be the time to strike even more deeply.. i am not an attorney, but there are a few who post on the board, and others who have a deeper understanding of legal matters.. what would it take to begin a class action lawsuit against the wts?
how exactly does the process start?
does it matter which state it starts in?
It's my unprofessional opinion that a class action lawsuit is a strong possibility. I'm sure there are lawyers thinking about this. They might want to wait until there are more successful individual cases or this case gets upheld on appeal. When one or more lawyers feels the time is right for a class action, I'm sure we will hear about it.
In the meantime, there are other cases pending. It may also be a good time for some to settle with the Society for much more money than they could have expected before.
can anyone imagine the what the elders in his current congregation must be going through ?!.
in their ideal world, they would have df'd him once they knew there would be a trial so they could play the card "he's not one of jw's.
" but since it occurred in a different congregation and he was already punished, there is little they can currently do.. wow, imagine the buzz in the kh when the info started leaking out.
I think it would be interesting to send letters to the people who live in that congregation's territory. The letter could describe the situation and comment on the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses expect their sexual predators to go door to door. It could conclude with a phone number of the hall and a request that they ask to be placed on their do not call list as a way of protesting this policy.
full disclosure:.
i am an active (2-4 hrs/month) 3rd generation jw hovering under the radar.
been posting here for 10 years.
"But I'm still at a loss, in specifics, of what the Congregation should do when a Pedofile/Murderer/Rapist moves in. Do they read from the platform his/her rap sheet from 3 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, etc ???"
That is a good question. I think it is obvious that the person shouldn't be given positions of authority or be allowed to go door to door. Should it be announced to the congregation? I think it should, but I don't know what all the legal implications are. I think there would be some legal protection for the congregation if he has been baptized and therfore agreed to live by the rules of the religion.
full disclosure:.
i am an active (2-4 hrs/month) 3rd generation jw hovering under the radar.
been posting here for 10 years.
I think the biggest problem is that they did nothing, even though they knew Kendrick was dangerous. There were a number of things they could have done without exposing them to other legal problems. If they just did something, I think their liability would have been greatly reduced. They might have even avoided the lawsuit.
"A religion would NEVER not allow a pedo in, after all God forgives all even murders. Nice as it would be, it's not a reality."
That's part of the problem. The truth about pedophiles and the difficulty of reforming them isn't consistent with the way Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious people view the world. They think the Bible can fix these people. If they were to admit that these people will always be dangerous, it would undermine their belief system.
Most religions and pedophiles have something in common. They need external controls to prevent them from harming people. It would be nice if the Watchtower Society would volunteer to keep their children safe, but we know that the threat of serious lawsuits may be the only way to get them to make needed changes.
full disclosure:.
i am an active (2-4 hrs/month) 3rd generation jw hovering under the radar.
been posting here for 10 years.
I think it would be appropriate to not allow known sexual predators into the Kingdom Hall. I don't think the congregation would be under any legal requirement to allow sexual predators access to children. They could still listen in on the telephone. An adult could be assigned to deliver literature to the person.
full disclosure:.
i am an active (2-4 hrs/month) 3rd generation jw hovering under the radar.
been posting here for 10 years.
Does anybody know if they used to announce that someone was disciplined for child abuse? Or did they just say something like fornication? I guess I'm wondering if they always covered up pedophilia or if it only started when they stopped making announcements about the reasons for discipline.
It was a good thing for them to stop making announcements of sins, but it was a mistake to conceal crimes from the police and parents.
full disclosure:.
i am an active (2-4 hrs/month) 3rd generation jw hovering under the radar.
been posting here for 10 years.
I would say that suspicions of abuse should be reported first to the police. That isn't slander and actually protects them from liability. That would take care of many problems. Also sexual preadators shouldn't be allowed in the door to door ministry.
