By Keri Blakinger and Rebecca Ellis | Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles County was hit with a record number of lawsuits last year, with spending on outside attorneys ballooning to defend against a deluge of child sex abuse claims.
The number of new lawsuits against the county rose to 2,675 in the last fiscal year — about 400 more than the prior year, according to a tally of the county’s legal spending released this week. It’s the highest figure since the county began publicly tracking the data in 2008.
The county’s Department of Children and Family Services was the most frequently sued, with 882 cases, followed by the Probation and Sheriff’s departments with 304 each. Both the Probation and Children and Family Services departments have been hit with thousands of lawsuits in recent years alleging that children were sexually abused in foster homes and at probation facilities and a former children’s shelter.
Read more at: LA Times
