Lawyers fight to get more records in LA abuse cases

From the AP:

LOS ANGELES -- Lawyers sparred in court Friday over access to records held by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, and the outcome could impact hundreds of pending molestation cases involving current and former southern California priests.

The documents, personnel files and other materials at issue are being sought in the first three of nearly 600 sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the archdiocese. The trials are scheduled to begin in November.

Donald Woods, an archdiocese attorney, told Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz that lawyers representing accusers wanted to go fishing through 75 years of church archives, including bishops' desk calendars, archdiocese newspapers and parish bulletins.

"This is absurd," Woods said. [More...]

And yet, it's looking like the lawyers will get most of what they want.