Before the N.F.L. regular season begins next Thursday, the league will get a clearer picture of what may be its biggest worry: the lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 retired players alleging that the N.F.L. intentionally misled them about the dangers of head injuries.
In the coming days, Judge Anita B. Brody of United States District Court is expected to rule on the league's motion to dismiss hundreds of cases that were consolidated. Brody, from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, could toss out some of the claims of negligence and fraud. She could disqualify some plaintiffs, including retirees with advanced dementia and other problems, as well as the families of stars like Junior Seau, who committed suicide.
Brody could also order the sides to continue working with a mediator, as they have been since July, to reach a settlement, although the league and the retired players are unlikely to reach an agreement until they get more clarity from Brody about the scope of the case, legal experts said.
Regardless of Brody's decision, the case, the most visible of its type, may provide a framework for similar lawsuits brought by football players and other athletes who say that a league failed to protect them adequately.
And given the stakes — billions of dollars in potential damages, a risk of lasting harm to the N.F.L.'s image and a possibility of Congressional intervention — her ruling will be widely watched and most likely appealed, perhaps by both sides.
"It has to be in the Mount Rushmore of things that keep Roger Goodell awake at night," the lawyer Scott A. Andresen said, referring to the N.F.L.'s commissioner.
Andresen, who teaches sports law at Northwestern University, added that he would not be shocked if the case eventually went to the Supreme Court.
But the dispute is a long way from reaching that point. Possible appeals could take many months. A potential discovery period could take even longer, involving depositions of key league officials and an extensive search for documents that might illustrate what the league knew, and when, about the dangers of concussions.
It is also a thorny case that in some ways echoes suits brought against the tobacco industry and settlements paid to New York workers who developed respiratory illnesses after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The N.F.L. has denied accusations that it deliberately misled players about head injuries, saying that it relied on the best science available at the time to create policies on concussions. The N.F.L. has also argued that any disputes should be governed not by the courts but by the collective bargaining agreements signed by the league and its players union.
If the judge lets any of the claims proceed, the plaintiffs still must prove that their medical problems were at least partly the result of head hits sustained in the N.F.L. That is a high hurdle given that almost all of them played football at the youth, high school and college levels, where they could have also sustained concussions.
The players involved in the suit vary widely in age and professional experience. Some played on practice squads and never participated in a game. Many were linemen, linebackers or running backs; others were punters or kickers.
The plaintiffs signed a variety of contracts and played under different rules on head injuries. Some played part or all of their careers when collective bargaining agreements were not in effect. Some have Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or advanced dementia, while others have symptoms that they say may worsen without proper medical monitoring.
Brody could dismiss negligence claims by players who were in the league while collective bargaining agreements were in effect. She could also allow players with only substantial injuries to pursue claims. The fraud claims may be the hardest to justify dismissing, legal experts said, because they focus on decisions the N.F.L. made, not a player's medical history.
The complexity of the case "would be a really good reason for the court to engage in behavior to encourage a settlement," said Paul Haagen, a director of the Center for Sports Law and Policy at Duke University. If the case balloons, Congress could weigh in by calling for stricter safety standards, he added.
The chances of a quick settlement, though, are complicated by the plaintiffs' competing agendas. Some older retirees may want money as soon as possible, while younger players facing many more years of medical bills might want to hold out for more.
"Unfortunately, there's a lot of us that don't have 10 years to find out what the decision is," the former fullback Kevin Turner said in April after oral arguments in the case were heard. Turner, 44, who played for the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, was found to have A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2010.
The N.F.L. still must clarify how much of any settlement its insurance companies will cover. Several of them have argued in court that they do not have to indemnify the N.F.L. because of the policies they wrote. Larry Schiffer, a lawyer representing Alterra America Insurance, which wrote one policy for one year for the N.F.L., told the judge that a settlement could cost $2.5 billion, a figure some legal experts consider conservative.
The cases involving the insurers' obligation to indemnify the league are unlikely to be resolved until after the underlying case with the retired players is clarified. But the league may be reluctant to settle with the players before it knows how much of any settlement its insurers might cover.
"If the N.F.L. knows its insurers would pay most of it, they're more likely to settle," said Mark Conrad, the director of the sports business program at Fordham. "But if the insurers try to opt out and the league has to pay most it themselves, they're less likely to settle."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Concussion Case Nears Key Phase for N.F.L.
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/08/concussion-case-nears-key-phase-for-nfl.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Concussion Case Nears Key Phase for N.F.L.
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Concussion Case Nears Key Phase for N.F.L.
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar