WASHINGTON -- While liability insurance covering sexual misconduct will remain available to the Catholic church, it's likely to be more expensive and restrictive in light of the sexual abuse scandal, according to The Washington Post.

Primary carriers and reinsurers are restricting or eliminating the available limit of sexual misconduct coverage, said Michael J. Bemi, president of the National Catholic Risk Retention Group (NCRRG). His company provides excess liability insurance to more than 50 archdioceses and dioceses.

Many insurance companies are significantly increasing premiums and demanding increased deductibles/retentions, Bemi said. They're also demanding certain loss control programs/measures be in place before coverage can be obtained or renewed.

Churches are having a difficult time proving they had insurance at the time of the alleged abuse in old cases, said Patrick J. Schiltz, interim dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. Schiltz has represented several dioceses in sexual misconduct cases.

"The insurance companies have taken a very hard line in court in terms of the types of proof needed to prove coverage," Schiltz said. "In a lot of these cases, you don't have insurance playing a role…In all of these hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, a very tiny percentage is going to get picked up by insurance."

The exact role insurance coverage has played in the settlement of sexual abuse claims against the church is unknown due to confidentiality clauses included in most settlements, according to the Post. How often insurance companies have balked at paying claims also is unknown because few disputes between the church and its insurers reach the courts, the paper reported.