BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Archdiocese has offered to settle another round of sexual abuse claims for less per person than it paid in hundreds of cases two years ago.

The offer was for $5,000 to $200,000 per claim, depending on the severity of the abuse, according to lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.

The Boston Globe, quoting unidentified plaintiffs’ lawyers, reported Friday that the payout would total about $7.5 million for about 100 plaintiffs. That would amount to an average payout of about $75,000 if everyone were paid. The 2003 settlements, $85 million to 554 people, averaged $153,000.

Carmen Durso, who represents 33 plaintiffs, said that as part of the settlement offer, some of the alleged victims – those considered to have the weaker of the cases – would have to prove to an arbitrator that the abuse took place and some could face cross-examination by church lawyers.

Victims who were awarded settlements in 2003 also went before arbitrators, but they were not subject to cross-examination.

Late Friday afternoon, the archdiocese issued a statement confirming the monetary range for the proposed awards and said the first round of arbitration hearings would start in February.

However, the archdiocese accused some plaintiffs’ attorneys of circulating “misleading or inaccurate information” about other details of settlement process.

The archdiocese said in the statement that an independent arbitrator, not a “secret Archdiocesan tribunal,” will hear claims. Church officials also rejected the notion that they already have determined whether some claims are true and others are false.

“The archdiocese, in its offer of the arbitration program, does not intend in any way to demean or re-victimize the survivors of sexual abuse, as has been asserted,” it said.

The archdiocese set a Feb. 2 deadline for the plaintiffs to accept the settlement offer, and several plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to meet Tuesday to discuss the offer, said Durso, who is on a steering committee of lawyers who are negotiating directly with church officials.

Thomas H. Hannigan Jr., an attorney representing the archdiocese, acknowledged that some plaintiffs will be subject to “limited” cross-examination by church attorneys, but he could not specify how many.

“We’re not saying (their claims) don’t have merit,” Hannigan said, “but we don’t have a sufficient basis to make that conclusion yet.”

Mark Itzkowitz, who represents six plaintiffs, said many of the alleged victims and their lawyers are upset because they believe the archdiocese is taking a harder line with their cases than those who were involved in the 2003 settlements.

“The only difference between these victims and the victims in the first wave is that the victims in the first wave got their paperwork in before (Archbishop Sean O’Malley) took over (in 2003),” he said.

Durso said the latest settlement proposal is a “take it or leave it” offer.

“The archdiocese is not negotiating. They’re dictating the terms,” he said. “For the people who are not included, their only option is to go to court and try to fight it.”

Some of the plaintiffs’ lawyers believe the archdiocese made a less generous offer this time because the second wave of cases has not generated the same amount of publicity as the first round.

However, the archdiocese says the amount of money offered “reflect(s) the present financial capability of the archdiocese and recognize(s) its deteriorated financial condition since the time of the last settlement.”

The clergy abuse scandal erupted in Boston in early 2002 when Cardinal Bernard Law, then the archbishop, acknowledged he shuffled a pedophile priest from parish to parish despite evidence the priest had molested children. That priest, John Geoghan, was convicted of assault and was later killed in prison.

Ultimately, thousands of pages of internal personnel files were released revealing a pattern of dozens of priests being shuffled from parish to parish to keep allegations against them secret and spare the church scandal.

Law resigned in December 2002. Within a month after O’Malley, his successor, was installed in July 2003, the archdiocese reached its historic settlement with more than 550 plaintiffs.

Patrick Jones, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, said other factors may explain why the two groups of plaintiffs have been treated differently.

“It would appear to a casual observer that the second wave of settlement offers is the product of a more difficult economic climate for the archdiocese, as well as some legitimate concern about the bona fide nature of some small percentage of these alleged abusive acts,” Jones said.

Since the 2003 settlement, the archdiocese has cut costs by closing or consolidating dozens of its 357 parishes.

Ann Hagan Webb, co-coordinator of the New England chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said offering as little as $5,000 to an abuse victim is “utterly ridiculous for what they’ve gone through.”

“People don’t do it for the money. They do it for justice,” she added. “Even though money is not the issue, this (amount of) money is insulting.”