BOSTON -- Alleged victims of convicted child molester John Geoghan and the Archdiocese of Boston reportedly reached a preliminary settlement agreement Tuesday.

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A source close to the case told NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda that at least $20 million will go to 86 people who said that they were molested by the defrocked priest.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents all the plaintiffs in the case, did not return repeated phone calls, but the source said that the agreement was to have been signed at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The massive settlement between the victims and the Boston Archdiocese came about after lengthy negotiations that apparently broke down several times. The final deal was brokered by an experienced and highly respected mediator.

Attorneys who have similar cases pending against the archdiocese related to other priests said that this deal would affect their cases.

"The next group of people ... who will be part of a similar arrangement will be those who have been molested [by other priests]," attorney Eric MacLeish said.

MacLeish and attorney Robert Sherman represent another 70 to 80 people who also claim to have been molested by priests in the Boston area. Sherman said the archdiocese had little choice but to settle.

"I think it's important that the archdiocese finally resolved them quickly and allowed these victims to finally get some closure on these issues," Sherman said. "The longer it stays out there, the longer the archdiocese were to fight, the more the wounds would stay open for these victims, and it would cause increasing damage and increasing pain."

According to The Boston Globe, the settlement under discussion would pay between $20 million to $30 million. For each victim, that would come to $232,000 to $348,000. Added to the $15 million already paid by the archdiocese, the Geoghan case would cost the church $35 million.

The archdiocese said in a statement this afternoon that it was trying to help the victims of pedophile priests.

"This is a first step towards helping the victims to reach closure so that the healing can begin," the statement read. "Our goal is to achieve a fair and just resolution to these cases as soon as possible in the best interest of the victims."

The source said that the settlement is a preliminary agreement and that the 86 plaintiffs still have to sign off on it.