HELENA — Attorneys for an order of nuns plan to ask a judge Thursday for a new round of negotiations to settle claims of child sex abuse by priests and nuns in Montana, a request that comes less than three weeks before the first trial.

The first three plaintiffs who say they were abused as children in western Montana are scheduled to go to trial July 14. Additional trials with similarly small groups of plaintiffs are planned but not yet scheduled against the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province.

The order of nuns and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena are defendants in two lawsuits filed in 2011 on behalf of 362 plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused in schools, churches and orphanages across western Montana between the 1940s and the 1970s.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization in federal court earlier this year as part of a $15 million proposed settlement with the plaintiffs. The Ursulines are not participating in the settlement. 

The bankruptcy filing halted all claims against the diocese, but not those against the order of nuns. That means the abuse claims in one of the lawsuits by at least 78 people who attended the St. Ignatius school run by the Ursulines, or were parishioners of the St. Ignatius church, are still headed to trial. 

A status conference was scheduled Thursday for the plaintiffs in the second lawsuit with claims against the Ursulines.

The plaintiffs claim the Ursulines placed sexual predators in rural and remote locations such as the St. Ignatius school and should have known that they would use their clerical cover to groom and sexually exploit their victims. 

The order has denied the allegations.

The Ursulines are seeking to avoid the trials by asking District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena to order a mediation between the parties. A hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon on that request and other pre-trial motions.

If Sherlock denies the request, the California-based order may consider filing for bankruptcy. The Ursulines have determined they don’t have insurance to cover the claims or enough assets to pay out dozens of jury awards, attorney Thomas Johnson said.

A bankruptcy filing could come before the first trial gets underway or after it is finished, depending on the verdict that is delivered, Johnson said.

“None of those choices are good,” he said.

Vito de la Cruz, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the first trial, said the Ursulines did not meaningfully participate in settlement negotiations a year ago and he has no reason to think they will now.

“I have a really dim view of their request at the 11th hour for a mediation,” de la Cruz said. “We are prepared to go to trial.”