[JURIST] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles [diocesan website] confirmed Sunday that it has reached a $660 million settlement [press release] with 552 plaintiffs in multiple outstanding clergy sexual abuse lawsuits against its priests. The settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, is the largest so far announced in the US clergy sex abuse scandal [JURIST news archive] in the Roman Catholic Church, greatly exceeding the previous record of $85 million paid out by the Boston Archdiocese in a 2002 settlement. Victims will be paid anywhere between $100,000 and $4 million each. Several Catholic orders did not participate in the settlement and will be exempt.

This latest settlement brings the level of compensation paid to sex abuse claimants by the US Catholic Church to over $2 billion, with the highest payout made by the Los Angeles archdiocese, the largest in the country. Six Los Angeles-area priests have been arrested for sexual abuse in recent years; the trial of the first to go before a court had been set to begin Monday. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.