The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg has filed for bankruptcy, saying it likely does not have enough assets to cover claims it may face over alleged sexual abuse of children.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. In a brief outlining its assets and debts, the organization listed assets at between $1 million and $10 million, and cited 19 lawsuits as being among the diocese's top 20 unsecured claims it is facing.

Attorneys from Kleinbard in Philadelphia, and Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in Nashville, Tennessee, are representing the diocese.

Kleinbard attorney Matthew Haverstick, who is representing the Harrisburg diocese, said insurance disputes will likely become the focus of bankruptcy proceedings.

According to a brief to the court outlining the reasoning behind the filing, the diocese said the move is necessary to ensure that it can continue to provide compensation to abuse survivors.

"The piecemeal adjudication of the claims of survivors presents a significant risk that some survivors may not be compensated," the filing said. "In marked contrast to such piecemeal adjudication, filing this Chapter 11 case and confirming a plan of reorganization is the best mechanism to fairly and equitably address the claims of survivors while ensuring that the mission and ministry of the [Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg] continues."

The filing further said that it could be facing as many as 200 more claims from alleged abuse victims associated with the diocese.

As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the diocese also filed an adversarial action against insurance carriers seeking a judgment that the diocese's insurance policies cover claims stemming from the alleged abuse. The adversarial action was brought against Travelers, Zurich North America Insurance, Underwriters at Lloyd's of London, Catholic Mutual Group, and the National Catholic Risk Retention Group.

The move comes six months after the diocese, which covers 89 parishes and has about 230,000 parishioners, announced that it has agreed to pay more than $12 million to 106 survivors who made claims through a victim compensation fund established in the wake of a 2018 grand jury report that detailed decades of sex abuse at Catholic diocese across the state.

It outlined 70 years of abuse within six dioceses in Pennsylvania, and named 300 allegedly predatory priests, who were said to have abused thousands of children. The report, issued by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, caught widespread attention, spurred numerous similar probes nationwide, and led to pushes by several state legislatures to implement so-called "window legislation" that temporarily repeals the statute of limitations on sex abuse claims.

In Pennsylvania, efforts to enact window legislation ultimately failed, but nearly all diocese agreed to set up compensation funds, which, as of late last year, resolved more than 550 claims for $84 million, according to The Associated Press.

Although those compensation funds resolved hundreds of claims, some claimants chose instead to wait out the enactment of possible window legislation, or to bring their cases to court. But now, with the Harrisburg Diocese's bankruptcy looming, any cases against the group that have already been filed will be stayed, and any claimant still looking to sue is now expected to face a court-mandated deadline for bringing their claims.

Benjamin Andreozzi of Andreozzi & Associates in Harrisburg, who has several claims pending against the diocese, said the discovery that was ongoing against the Harrisburg Diocese will now be put on hold.

"Unfortunately we may never get a complete picture of the depths of the cover-up in the Harrisburg Diocese if we're unable to obtain the documents," Andreozzi said.

He said that, while it is "disappointing" the survivors will no longer get their day in court, the bankruptcy does make it easier for claims to proceed that might otherwise have been dogged by the statute of limitations.

As far as next steps in the bankruptcy, Andreozzi, whose firm handles sex abuse cases across the country, said there may be litigation over whether claimants could be entitled to assets of the local parishes as well, rather than just those of the diocese.

"They may have parishes that are very well-funded," he said. "There's always a question of fraudulent conveyances that will need to be considered through bankruptcy court."

However, Haverstick, who is representing the Harrisburg diocese, said he does not expect fraudulent conveyances to become an issue in the bankruptcy proceedings. Instead, he pointed to insurance disputes as the fulcrum of proceedings.

"I see that as probably the most contentious part of the bankruptcy for the foreseeable future," he said.

Haverstick said that a Superior Court decision from last year factored into the diocese's decision to file for bankruptcy.

He cited the Superior Court's decision in Rice v. Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, in which the intermediate appellate court said that a decades-old sex abuse claim that otherwise would have been outside the statute of limitations could proceed against a diocese because a 2016 grand jury report outlining newly discovered information essentially tolled the statute of limitations on the claim. The decision was widely viewed as likely opening the courthouse doors to claimants seeking the sue the Catholic Church following the release of the 2018 statewide grand jury report.

"It's really the Rice case that I think finally set the diocese on the course it's on now," he said.

With the Diocese of Harrisburg and the Boy Scouts of America both filing for bankruptcy in the past few days over concerns from the staggering liabilities they're facing over alleged sex abuse, Haverstick said he expects there may be similar announcements to come.

"I think this is going to be the beginning of a trend for nonprofits, diocese and charities across the nation, not just in Pennsylvania to handle this catastrophic tort liability," he said.