Reactions to Concussion Settlement

[SpikeDDS]

Interested in seeing others’ thoughts on the NHL’s settlement agreement regarding head injuries.

 

My initial thought is that any player who takes that agreement is a fool unless he has been told his life will be over soon. No self-respecting player should ever agree to that settlement. It’s insulting.

 

I have no idea how the NHL was able to escape the class action suit, but this result is far from justice. 

[Podein25]

3 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

this result is far from justice

 

That's my view. The part allowing the NHL to back out of the "deal" if 100% of the players don't accept is just eye-popping. I mean, I get it from a legal standpoint, but sheesh.

 

3 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

I have no idea how the NHL was able to escape the class action suit, but this result is far from justice. 

 

Quote from the players' counsel explains:

 

"When you have a defendant who has spent millions of dollars litigating a case for four years to prove that nothing is wrong with getting your brain bashed in, you can only get so far," Davidson told The Associated Press. "I think it's important for players who have an opportunity to settle their case with the NHL now to understand that before they get anything through a trial against the NHL it's going to cost millions of dollars in experts to get there, and that's going to have to be paid for before they see a penny from any recovery, assuming they win."

[SpikeDDS]

@Podein25

 

But this quote is only true because the NHL won a previous ruling that prevented this case from becoming a class-action. It limited the potential plaintiffs to the 300-or-so active ones. I'm wondering how they pulled that off. The NFL was not able to do that. That decision is what made this one possible.

 

But I read that quote, and it basically says, "Sue us if you dare! Your attorneys will be going blind on paperwork and we will drag it out so long, you'll regret not taking the deal!"

 

That is just awful!

[Podein25]

4 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

@Podein25

 

But this quote is only true because the NHL won a previous ruling that prevented this case from becoming a class-action. It limited the potential plaintiffs to the 300-or-so active ones. I'm wondering how they pulled that off. The NFL was not able to do that. That decision is what made this one possible.

 

But I read that quote, and it basically says, "Sue us if you dare! Your attorneys will be going blind on paperwork and we will drag it out so long, you'll regret not taking the deal!"

 

That is just awful!

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I dunno. It's all rather weird. How can the PA or a collection of players be estopped (is that the right word?) from pursuing a class action, except by agreement somehow? Where's the lawyers on the forum?

[SpikeDDS]

29 minutes ago, Podein25 said:

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I dunno. It's all rather weird. How can the PA or a collection of players be estopped (is that the right word?) from pursuing a class action, except by agreement somehow? Where's the lawyers on the forum?

 

Well, for anyone else who wants to read it, here's the story from the Detroit Free Press:

 

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2018/11/12/nhl-retired-players-concussion-settlement/1981513002/

 

Here's the pertinent text on the denial for class action status:

 

The settlement comes four months after a federal judge denied class-action status for the retired players, a significant victory for the league in the lawsuit filed in November 2013. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson in July denied class-action status, citing “widespread differences” in state laws about medical monitoring that would “present significant case management difficulties.”

The bid for class-action status would have created one group of all living former NHL players and one group of all retired players diagnosed with a neurological disease, disorder or condition. Had Nelson certified the class action, more than 5,000 former players would have been able to join the case.

 

Davidson called Nelson’s decision a “watershed moment” for the case and that players lost leverage as a result.

 

“It severely limited the damages to the NHL owners and benefits to the NHL players,” Vanderbilt University sports economic professor John Vrooman wrote in an email to The AP. “This decision essentially forced the 140 (plus) players involved in the suit to settle and prevented the participation of all other potential litigants. So it will seem that both sides ‘won’ in what was really a lopsided victory for the owners. It’s just that all of the owners won by gaining current and future protection from damages and a minor fraction of the players won something that they would have zero chance in obtaining in isolation versus the league.”

 

Seems like the denial of class action was the death-knell for justice, IMHO.

[Podein25]

6 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

“widespread differences” in state laws about medical monitoring that would “present significant case management difficulties.”

 

This looks decidedly technical in nature. State laws about medical monitoring? What about the league?