R.I. Senate to vote this week on 38 Studios settlement bill

The Rhode Island Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on a bill whose supporters say will encourage out-of-court settlements in ongoing litigation regarding the failure of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, reports NBC 10.

A committee in the Rhode Island House of Representatives reviewed the bill yesterday, and passed it on to the state Senate without voting. According to a lawyer for the Rhode Island Commerce Corp. — which sued 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling and 13 others after the company went bankrupt in 2012 — the legislation would make it more likely for the defendants to settle with the Commerce Corp., which would increase the potential amount of money that could be returned to Rhode Island taxpayers.

"Any settlement in this case is going to be a benefit to the taxpayers of this state," said Max Wistow, an attorney for the Commerce Corp., during a recent hearing. "This statute will help potentially get some monies in — I don't know how much, maybe all of the monies."

The Commerce Corp. was known as the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. when it granted 38 Studios a $75 million loan in 2010 to bring the company to Rhode Island. The studio went under, and the state's taxpayers are now on the hook for approximately $90 million.