An $800 million proposal from the Archdiocese of New York to settle more than 1,000 claims of clergy sex abuse is a step towards accountability but an imperfect resolution for the church's victims, said one accuser and several plaintiff advocates.

The archdiocesan settlement, which the recently appointed Archbishop Ronald Hicks described as the culmination of "several months" of negotiations between the church and plaintiff representatives, comes amid a bitter, yearslong legal dispute pitting the archdiocese against its longtime insurer Chubb, which has refused to pay compensation to accusers and accused church leaders of intentionally enabling and concealing sexual abuse for decades.

Mike Finnegan, an attorney whose firm represents 300 of the 1,300 accusers seeking redress from the archdiocese, said the $800 million settlement provides claimants with the choice to receive $250,000 outright as "quick pay option" or to enter into an allocation process to determine compensation. But the proposal requires unanimous consent from plaintiffs by June 27, followed by a 30-day signing period, in order to take effect.

Rejection of the deal would push the archdiocese to file bankruptcy, following in the footsteps of New York dioceses in Albany, Rockville Centre and Buffalo. "If a truly global settlement can be achieved," Hicks wrote in a May 1 statement, "compensation will become available to victim survivors in the fastest, most comprehensive manner possible, without the need for lengthy painful litigation for victim-survivors or bankruptcy proceedings for the archdiocese."