Bankruptcy is now the rage for churches, corporations and other organizations accused of wrongdoing, and their insurance companies are loving it! Hit with enormous liabilities for unleashing monsters on the world, numerous Catholic dioceses have filed for bankruptcy protection to shield themselves from sexual abuse claims. Opioid manufacturers and faulty earplug makers are following the same strategy.

The insurers that would normally be paying these liabilities on behalf of the malefactors are delighted with this strategy because the wrongdoer's bankruptcy offers them the hope that, if they keep their heads down, they may avoid their payment obligations for at least six or seven years. Their hope is that the bankruptcy itself will halt the liability lawsuits for two or three years, and then the liability lawsuits will take two or three years to resolve, before the often aged and dying survivors of the wrongdoing are even able to litigate the insurance issues, which may take another year or two.

Survivors and their lawyers should focus like lasers on stipulated judgments and assignments of insurance rights to short circuit the insurers' hopes for a seven-year delay.