Anderson's firm represented 14 more alleged victims of sexual abuse soon after Riedle's case went public. Most of those cases were eventually settled out of court. When the jury in a trial against the Archdiocese of Winona found for the plaintiff and set punitive damages at $2.7 million and compensatory damages at $883,000, Anderson made national headlines.
Over the next 10 years, Anderson filed over 200 suits against religious organizations, a majority of them sex-abuse complaints against the Catholic Church. The most notorious involved James Porter, an alleged repeat offender who took his act from state to state.
Meanwhile, Anderson's legal peers began to wonder privately whether he was chasing the mother of all ambulances.
References
- Wikipedia: no entry
Jeffrey anderson famed clergy abuse lawyer now suing Boy Scouts
New Files May Detail Sex Abuse Within Boy Scouts
http://www.abusedinwisconsin.com/AboutUs.aspx
Jeff Anderson crusades against the Catholic Church - - News ...
www.citypages.com/2003-04-16/news/true-believer/full/
Jeff Anderson: One Man's Crusade Against The Catholic Church
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../jeff-anderson-one-mans-cr_n_516658.html
Mar 29, 2010 - Law Firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, P.A Attorneys St. Paul . ....taste, considering the Catholic Church tolerated the anti-semitism of the NazisLawyer states case for clergy sex abuse victims - Jeff Anderson ...
https://www.andersonadvocates.com/.../Lawyer-states-case-for-clergy-sex...
Mar 14, 2011 - St. Paul, Minn — . - Jeff Anderson has heard it all.
He's been called a scourge. A parasite. A media-monger hellbent on bringing down the Catholic Church.But the Minnesota lawyer who's made a career of suing the most powerful religious institution in the world over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases pays no mind."I don't care what people think, and I don't try to control it," said Anderson, the lead attorney in civil fraud cases pending against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who is now representing those victims in the archdiocese's bankruptcy
. He denies any anti-Catholic sentiment - he's pursued cases against many denominations, he says.In April 2002, lawyers Jeff Anderson and Marci Hamilton filed suit against the Holy See on behalf of "John V. Doe," who asserted he that had been abused by Andrew Ronan, a priest who was laicized in 1966 and died in 1992. Anderson and Hamilton argued that the Vatican should be held liable for John Doe's damages for abuse because Catholic priests are "employees" of the Vatican. But Judge Michael Mosman of the United States District Court in Oregon shot down that claim and outright dismissed the Plaintiff's case.In granting the Holy See's motion to dismiss the case, Judge Mosman asserted, "There are no facts to create a true employment relationship between Ronan and the Holy See." Rather, the relationship between a priest and the Vatican is more like the relationship between a lawyer and the state bar. The bar can license, sanction, and disbar attorneys, but by no means is that relationship equivalent to that of an employer and an employee.True Believer
St. Paul Attorney Jeff Anderson Has Already Made Millions "Suing the Shit" out of the Catholic Church. Now All He Wants Is Another Reformation and a Little Credit for Time Served
By David Schimke
Citypages [Minneapolis/St. Paul MN]
April 16, 2003
www.citypages.com/databank/24/1167/article11177.asp
Who will show up in the office today? Jeff Anderson, the wisecracking ambulance chaser with a reputation for hunting priests and an advanced degree in self-promotion, the guy more than a few Catholics have secretly prayed to have consigned eternally to hell? Or Jeff Anderson, tireless champion of the bullied, born-again sober, and obsessed with exposing monsters cloaked in piety?
No one knows for sure. Not even him. Because once he takes up a cause, he will be anyone and do anything to make it his crusade. That's the reason he keeps winning, the press keeps calling, and the Catholic Church has finally had to meet him at the bargaining table. It's why his clients love him, even as he asks them to wallow publicly in their pain and takes 40 percent for the trouble.
When Jeff Anderson puts on the gloves, he'll be damned if he's not in the winner's circle come Judgment Day. And in all things that have mattered to him for 20 years, Judgment Day seems close at hand.
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