Baltimore’s administrative judge on Monday temporarily put all lawsuits related to childhood sexual abuse filed in the city under a 2023 state law on hold as the courts deal with what she described as an “unprecedented influx of cases.”

In a five-page order, Chief Judge Audrey J.S. Carrión wrote that more than 1,250 lawsuits have been filed in Baltimore Circuit Court under the Child Victims Act of 2023, which eliminated time limits for survivors of sexual abuse to take legal action and made it easier for them to hold institutions accountable.

Carrión said she was largely making the decision in light of ongoing discussions about how to best manage all the cases. The order, she said, does not prevent people from filing new lawsuits.

“In reaching the decision to temporarily stay these cases, the Court has weighed the understandable desire of parties to proceed with litigating these cases as well as the need for consistency, efficiency, and fairness,” Carrión said.

She said she determined that it was best to wait for more guidance from the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and the Maryland Supreme Court before these cases move forward.

In a statement, Terri Charles, a spokesperson for the Maryland Judiciary, said the agency does not have information about other administrative judges issuing similar orders.

The rules committee, she said, is next set to meet June 26.

As it became clear that Maryland could face billions of dollars in liability, lawmakers this year pared back the amount of damages that survivors can win through these lawsuits.

The legislature slashed the cap for damages against public institutions including the state from $890,000 to $400,000. Meanwhile, legislators reduced the cap for damages against private institutions from $1.5 million to $700,000.

Those changes apply to claims submitted on or after June 1, which led attorneys to scramble to file lawsuits to protect the rights of their clients to the original, higher cap for damages.

Even though the cases are individual lawsuits, it’s beneficial to have a coordinated approach to litigation, said Robert Jenner, founder and managing partner of Jenner Law P.C.

Jenner said he believes that was smart for the judge to take a step back.

At the same time, Jenner said, many survivors are well into their 60s, 70s and 80s and want their day in court. He said he supports the decision “as long as it doesn’t hold up anybody’s road to justice.”

Michael Belsky, a partner at Schlachman, Belsky, Weiner & Davey P.A., said he feels that the decision was inevitable given the “hasty, unthought-out enactment of this legislation in an effort for the state to protect itself and not the children.”

“Clients are frustrated,” Belsky said. “They’re given the green light to move forward with litigation that they waited their life to pursue, and then they’re told at the 11th hour, ‘We’re rethinking this, and we’re going to limit your rights.’”

Meanwhile, Jonathan Schochor, chairman and founding partner of Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea P.A., said in his 53 years of practicing law that he’s “never been a part of such a debacle.”

Lawyers, he said, collectively spent millions of dollars preparing and filing these lawsuits before the change in the law. And then in Baltimore, a judge put these cases on hold, Schochor said.

“I am offended. My sense of justice is offended,” Schochor said. “I don’t think anybody recognizes what we as lawyers had to do to fulfill our duties to our clients, which we did. It was heroic. All hands-on deck, 24/7, to get this done in this ridiculous timeframe.”

Justice delayed, he said, is justice denied.

But Schochor said attorneys are going to find a way to obtain justice.