By FindAttorneys.org Editorial Team | Last reviewed: October 9, 2026
Quick Facts
- Role: Partner, Nye, Stirling, Hale, Miller & Sweet LLP, Santa Barbara, California
- Focus: Childhood sexual abuse and personal injury litigation
- Admitted: California, 1996
- Education: B.A., California State University, Sacramento (1992); J.D., University of Utah College of Law (1996), Law Review
- Known for: Winning public release of Franciscan priest personnel files and forcing the Boy Scouts to produce internal abuse files in California
For years, the records that showed what religious orders and youth groups knew about abusers sat in locked files. Getting those files out, and in front of a judge, a jury, or the public, has been a large part of what Santa Barbara attorney Timothy Hale has done for more than two decades.
Attorney Timothy Hale began representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse in 2000. Since then, his firm reports settlements for abuse clients exceeding $40 million, against defendants that include the Catholic, LDS, and Presbyterian churches, the Boy Scouts of America, public and private schools, and residential programs for at-risk youth. This profile focuses on two fights over records that shaped his career, and on what California law now allows survivors to do.
Prying Open the Franciscan Files
Hale’s first abuse case came in 2000, as part of a team in a Catholic clergy-abuse matter. For one client, that team obtained what is believed to be the first million-dollar pre-trial settlement of the clergy-abuse scandal.
The bigger fight came later. Representing 25 clergy abuse survivors, Hale won two rulings in Los Angeles Superior Court, in June 2007 and March 2009, ordering the release of personnel files for Franciscan friars accused of abuse. The friars and their order appealed, and Hale served as lead appellate counsel.
In In re The Clergy Cases I (2010) 188 Cal.App.4th 1224, the Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court. It held that California’s compelling interest in protecting children from molestation outweighed the accused friars’ privacy rights, including in psychiatric and other confidential records. The California Supreme Court denied review in January 2011, and the files became public in 2012. His firm says the opinion later served as the basis for similar releases, including files involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
That work came alongside the 2007 Los Angeles and San Diego clergy abuse global settlements, which totaled more than $858 million. The Public Justice Foundation named the team of lawyers behind them, including Hale, finalists for its 2008 Trial Lawyer of the Year award.
Taking the Boy Scouts’ “Perversion Files” to Trial
For decades, the Boy Scouts of America kept internal records on volunteers it had banned over suspected abuse, known as the Ineligible Volunteer files. In January 2012, Hale became the first attorney to obtain a California trial court order requiring the organization to produce those files for 1971 through 2011, according to his firm. The Scouts appealed, and Hale again handled the appeal until the California Supreme Court declined to take it.
The case behind that order involved a 13-year-old Scout molested in 2007 by an adult Santa Barbara volunteer. The lawsuit alleged that a local Scout executive tried to discourage the boy’s mother from reporting the abuse to police, and that she reported it anyway, as the Santa Barbara Independent reported. The volunteer later pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment.
The case went to trial in Santa Barbara Superior Court in January 2015, with Hale as lead trial counsel. The Boy Scouts settled during trial. The terms were confidential, and the settlement kept the more recent files out of the public record, the Associated Press reported. A year earlier, in February 2014, Hale had also served as lead counsel in a separate childhood sexual abuse jury trial against the Boy Scouts in the same court.
Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Every case depends on its own facts, evidence, and law.
Why Records Matter So Much in Institutional Abuse Cases
Most civil abuse claims against an institution don’t turn on whether the abuse happened. They turn on what the organization knew, when it knew it, and what it did next. Internal files can show earlier complaints, quiet transfers, or warnings that never reached parents.
That is why discovery battles often decide these cases. A survivor’s lawyer may need to fight over privacy objections, religious-freedom defenses, and protective orders before seeing a single document. Hale’s work on the Franciscan and Boy Scout files is a clear example of how long, and how high in the court system, those fights can go. For a broader look at claims against religious organizations, see our guide to legal advice for clergy abuse survivors.
Trial Work and Teaching
Hale has focused on civil litigation since joining the California bar in 1996 and tried his first case to a jury verdict in 1998. He has served as lead counsel in jury trials, binding arbitrations, and appeals. He has also been invited to lecture on childhood sexual abuse in institutional settings at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara.
California Deadlines Survivors Should Understand
- Abuse on or after January 1, 2024. Under AB 452, which took effect January 1, 2024, there is no time limit to sue over childhood sexual assault that occurs on or after that date.
- Abuse before 2024. Claims about earlier abuse remain subject to Code of Civil Procedure § 340.1 as it read on December 31, 2023. Generally, that means filing before the survivor turns 40, or within five years of discovering that a psychological injury was caused by the abuse, whichever is later.
- The revival window has closed. California’s three-year revival window for older claims, created by AB 218, closed at the end of 2022. Some survivors who missed it may still have claims under the discovery rule.
- Civil and criminal cases are different. A civil case is separate from any criminal prosecution, and it can reach organizations that will never be charged. Our overview of how a civil sexual abuse lawsuit can help survivors walks through the process.
- Support is available now. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7 at 800-656-4673.
Disclaimer
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with FindAttorneys.org, Timothy Hale, or Nye, Stirling, Hale, Miller & Sweet LLP. Case details come from published court opinions, news reporting, and the firm’s published attorney profile. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes, and every case depends on its own facts. Filing deadlines vary by state and can change, so speak with a licensed attorney in your state about your situation. FindAttorneys.org is an attorney directory, not a law firm.
About the Featured Attorney
Timothy Hale is a partner at Nye, Stirling, Hale, Miller & Sweet LLP in Santa Barbara, California, where he represents survivors of childhood sexual abuse and people with serious personal injury claims. Admitted in California since 1996, he argued In re The Clergy Cases I, which led to the public release of Franciscan abuse files, and was lead trial counsel against the Boy Scouts of America in 2015. He is a University of Utah law graduate.
