The newly appointed administrator of a settlement fund for survivors of abuse at state-run youth facilities rebuffed concerns about his ability to operate independently.
In his first interview since being confirmed to the role in March, Gerard Boyle said that his decision-making would not be influenced by the sweeping changes made to the fund last year, which granted the governor hiring and firing authority over the administrator and gave the attorney general the power to reject award determinations.
“There’s no doubt in my mind: I am totally independent, and I will do the best I can to make sure these cases are resolved as quickly and as reasonably as possible,” Boyle said. “And I have no fear whatsoever that the attorney general will be unreasonable in vetoing decisions that are made.”
The changes to the fund led to the end of the tenure of the previous administrator, former Supreme Court Justice John Broderick. Both Broderick and lawyers for survivors have accused state leaders of reneging on promises made to claimants when the fund was established in 2022. (Broderick maintains he did not resign from the role; rather, he argues that the changes effectively eliminated his job.)
The position of claims administrator remained vacant, and the settlement fund process paused until Boyle, a former circuit court judge, began in the role on May 1.
Boyle, 76, said he received a call from Gov. Kelly Ayotte in late January asking him to become the new administrator. Boyle and Ayotte have known each other for 20 years, from the time she served as the attorney general in the mid-2000s, he said.
Boyle urged survivors who were skeptical of his ability to act independently to “have faith that the governor has appointed somebody who has the integrity to do the right thing.”
“Although I was appointed by the governor and the governor can terminate my employment at any time, this is not a job that I need to have,” he said. “I was quite happy in retirement and doing what I was doing, and if for some reason I’m removed, then that’s fine with me.”
A spokesperson for Ayotte did not respond to a request for an interview with the governor or a request for comment.
Boyle said he has received no directives from either Ayotte or Attorney General John Formela on how to operate the fund. Asked whether Ayotte has communicated how she will measure Boyle’s success in the role, the administrator said: “The governor has told me that she will get me whatever I need, and I think that’s good.”
Boyle is aware of the formidable challenges he faces. He called his new position “probably the toughest job in the state.”
Seventy-eight percent of the 2,174 accepted claims submitted to the fund remain unresolved. Even if the resolution process were to proceed at the quickest possible pace, Boyle predicted it would take four years to conclude.
The fund is also expected to run out of money by October. Boyle said he plans to ask the legislature for $55 million more in funding, a significant increase over the $20 million contributed this fiscal year, but less than the $75 million per year previously contemplated.
He will also have to convince survivors that this process remains worth trusting, despite the changes.
Nixon Peabody attorney Mark Knights, whose firm is representing 55% to 60% of individuals with outstanding claims, said his firm will be closely watching what happens when the claims process resumes.
“The question that we’re going to have to wait and see about is whether Judge Boyle is going to allow the state to try to shortchange clients and cut corners,” Knights said in an interview this week.
Knights stressed that Boyle has a strong judicial record and reputation and said he was confident the former judge could do the job.
But, Knights said, “At the end of the day, it’s the governor who really holds the purse strings and then can fire him from that position if she doesn’t like the job he’s doing, and that’s not a process that our clients can really have faith in. Those are structural problems with the way that the settlement fund is currently set up.”
Nixon Peabody has sued the state in an attempt to block the changes to the settlement fund. The case has been appealed to the state Supreme Court and is pending.
Shaheen & Gordon attorney Anthony Carr, whose firm represents about 100 clients with outstanding claims, said he and his firm “fully endorse Judge Boyle being in this position.”
“My concerns are 0% about Judge Boyle and 100% about the governor and the legislature’s intentions and whether they’re in good faith,” Carr said in an interview.
Changes to the fund
Four years ago, as hundreds of people came forward with stories of abuse while they were held as children at the Youth Development Center and other state-run facilities, lawmakers elected to take a relatively novel approach.
Rather than waiting for litigation to proceed in court on a case-by-case basis, the legislature established its own settlement fund. Proponents argued that it would expedite the resolution process and allow for a trauma-informed approach, which is often not possible in adversarial court proceedings.
The process established by statute centered around resolution hearings, in which a survivor would describe what they experienced. Relying on a rubric, Broderick would then determine the value of the claims award.
After receiving the offer of a monetary figure, the individual could then choose to either accept it or proceed with litigation.
The attorney general’s office was permitted to submit a position statement, but did not have the power to veto the determinations Broderick reached. In his role, Broderick served as a judicial appointee rather than a political appointee.
Both elements of the fund changed last year following criticism from Republican lawmakers over the value of the awards and other aspects of the process.
Boyle said he had no problems with those changes.
“I think that the perception of the legislators was that the claims were excessive — the payments being given out,” Boyle said. “But I haven’t seen that yet, so I don’t know.”
The average settlement award in the 425 claims resolved through the fund is $563,054, according to a report released earlier this month. State law caps payouts through the fund at $2.5 million in cases of “egregious sexual abuse,” $1.5 million in all other cases that involve sexual abuse, and $250,000 in cases that involve only other types of abuse.
Boyle said he has no sense of whether the average award amount will change under his leadership.
“The reason I don’t know is because I haven’t reviewed the 1,700 claims,” he said. “Obviously, if they are all for sexual assaults, then that increases the average amount of the claim. If they’re all for physical abuse, then that’s a different world.”
So far, the attorney general has vetoed six awards reached by Broderick, according to the settlement fund report. A spokesperson for the attorney general did not respond to questions about why those decisions had been vetoed or about what logic would guide veto determinations going forward.
Boyle said that Formella has expressed support for the fund in their private conversations.
Michael Garrity, a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General, wrote in a statement that the state “remains committed to a fair, trauma-informed process that delivers meaningful compensation to survivors.”
The attorney general’s “review authority” allows the office “to ensure awards are appropriate, consistent, and supported by the evidentiary record and governing standards,” he wrote.
Garrity declined to comment on how individual decisions will be made, citing the confidentiality of the claims process and “ongoing legal considerations.”
Timeline
Though Boyle started in his role earlier this month, he will not begin holding resolution proceedings until August, more than one year after Broderick last held his.
Boyle said he will take the coming months to review the legislative history that established the fund and similar claims processes across the country, including those established in the Catholic church and Scouting America abuse cases. Boyle has been heavily involved in the latter organization, which was formerly known as the Boy Scouts, throughout his life.
Boyle said he is focused on developing processes that could expedite claims resolutions. As Broderick did, he is considering bringing on an assistant administrator to hear cases.
But even with an assistant, the maximum number of cases heard each week in the Broderick era was eight. If the fund operated at that pace every week of the year, it would take until 2030 to resolve all cases.
In an effort to speed things up, Boyle is considering implementing two optional alternatives.
The first would involve offering a lump sum payment to claimants who wish to bypass the resolution proceeding. The payment offered would likely be smaller than they would receive if they waited.
The second would rely on settlement fund-affiliated mediators to reach resolutions between the state and claimants.
Lawyers for the survivors expressed a variety of views on the introduction of resolution options.
Knights noted that private mediation is already an avenue his clients can pursue. He urged the state to adopt a process that involves a team of evaluators who review claims submissions and hold shorter conversations with survivors at a faster clip than one or two administrators are able to do.
Carr said that he supported Boyle’s exploration of new pathways.
“He’s certainly not bound by doing things the way Administrator Broderick was inclined to do them,” Carr said.
He did, however, express some concern that a lump sum option could potentially take advantage of claimants’ socioeconomic circumstances.
“Will they be amounts that are unfair that a client may elect to choose under duress just due to the circumstances of their life and what may be necessary?” Carr said.
Money
The state has agreed to pay a total of $239 million in settlements resolved through the fund so far, but it has appropriated just $185 million. Some of the awards are to be paid out in installments, but even if no other settlements are reached, the fund is set to run out of money in five months, according to Boyle.
The administrator is tasked with managing the fund balance and requesting additional money when necessary. On Monday, Boyle said that he planned to request $15 million. A day later, however, he said he would request $55 million.
“That will cover us for all of the money that we are already committed for, plus enable us to make some substantial settlements between now and the end of fiscal year 2027,” he said.
The request is expected to be heard by the legislature’s fiscal committee on June 19.
