April 10, 2026
Former Church of Scientology members asked a Florida federal judge to lift the stay on their trafficking claims against the church, arguing that the arbitration the parties attended was an unfair, opaque process controlled by the church.
Plaintiffs Gawain and Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris asked U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber in a motion Thursday to reconsider his order staying their lawsuit and ordering them to first resolve their disputes internally with the organization before going to court.
In the motion, the plaintiffs, who are former sea-going members of the church, said they made a good faith effort to arbitrate their claims under Scientology’s arbitration process. But the arbitrators said they would not apply the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which the plaintiffs claimed was violated, or state contract law regarding the validity of the arbitration agreements in question, according to the motion.
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The plaintiffs are represented by Gregory P. Hansel, Shana M. Solomon and Elizabeth F. Quinby of Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios Chtd. LLP, Shelby Leighton of Public Justice, Manuel J. Dominguez, Theodore Leopold, Agnieszka M. Fryszman and Brendan Schneiderman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Joseph C. Kohn and Zahra R. Dean of Kohn Swift & Graf PC and Warren A. Zimmerman of Warren A. Zimmerman PA.