Buffalo, NY — Jones Day, which represents the Diocese of Buffalo in the Office of Attorney General (OAG) lawsuit, has filed a submission today with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of New York, that responds to the Court’s questions about fees associated with the Diocese’s response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.
The FOIL request, made by The Buffalo News, sought all documents submitted by the Diocese to the OAG’s office as part of its investigation of the Diocese. In response, the Diocese objected to public release of these approximately 25,000 pages of internal, highly sensitive documents—which include personal details concerning the claims made by victim survivors—principally on the ground that their wholesale public disclosure now will be disruptive to the parties’ ongoing efforts to resolve the Diocese’s bankruptcy case. That ground is supported by a specific exemption in FOIL.
All parties involved in the Chapter 11 proceedings are also maintaining the confidentiality of this information in accordance with strict protocols in the bankruptcy case, under which the Diocese and the Creditors’ Committee have agreed that these sensitive documents must be maintained in confidence by a closely limited group of recipients and must not be publicly disclosed.
“To be clear, we have not opposed access to documents for those who are entitled to have them,” said Chief Operating Officer Rick Suchan. “All documents at issue have been already provided to the Chapter 11 Creditors’ Committee representing victim-survivors but were produced in a form and pursuant to agreed-upon protocols that would not only protect the names of the individuals reporting abuse but also any contextual information that could be used to identify them. The Diocese also anticipates that access to information concerning the claims asserted in the bankruptcy case will be discussed as part of a consensual resolution with the creditors committee and other stakeholders.”
The Diocese authorized Jones Day’s work and fees relating to the FOIL issue, which relates to and arose out of the OAG’s lawsuit and investigation.
