The Boy Scouts of America have reached an $850 million agreement with attorneys representing tens of thousands of claims of child sex abuse that occurred over many years.

       The settlement involves the Scouts organization and its local councils, while negotiations continue with insurance companies and charter organizations.

       The national organization is to contribute up to $250 million, while the councils have been asked to pay $500 million, plus $100 million from the Scouts’ pension plan, which the BSA said is overfunded. The Scouts filed for bankruptcy last year, and hope to emerge from it late this year.

       The Scouts released a statement calling the settlement “the biggest step forward to date as the BSA works toward our dual imperatives of equitably compensating survivors of abuse and preserving the mission of Scouting.”

       “This settlement is a bittersweet resolution for the generations of children that the Boy Scouts of America failed to protect,” said Chicago attorney Christopher Hurley, part of a firm representing some 4,000 men who filed claims. “While there is some satisfaction in seeing the Scouts acknowledge their fault, and (the) magnitude of this settlement is historic, not one of my clients would have traded money for his lost youth.”

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