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Advisen Front Page News - Wednesday, January 31, 2018

   
100 concussion lawsuits consolidated into class-action
100 concussion lawsuits consolidated into class-action
Publication Date 01/28/2018
Source: Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City)

Jan. 28--Approximately 100 class-action lawsuits against university athletic programs, claiming insufficient concussion protocol going back decades, have been consolidated in the Northern Illinois District federal court in Chicago. Here are things to know about the cases:

--Judge John Lee ruled that the classes should be narrowed to single sport/single school status.

--Judge Lee asked the plaintiffs and the defendants to each select two cases that attorneys believe to be representative of the class-action. Those four cases will go through discoveries, motions, etc., to give all parties an idea of how the litigation will proceed.

--The plaintiffs' selected cases were football players Eric Weston of Weber State (1996-97) and the late Zack Langston of Pittsburg State (2007-10). Langston committed suicide in 2014.

--The defendants' selected cases were football players Jaime Richardson of Florida (1994-96) and Michael Rose (1996-99) and Timothy Stratton (1998-01) of Purdue.

--A separate lawsuit against the NCAA over concussion protocol was settled, but dealt only with medical monitoring. It did not deal with personal injury claims.

--The plaintiffs allege that there was no clear protocol from NCAA schools before 2010.

--Some former players have been sought by the law firms and some have contacted the law firms on their own.

--A settlement seems most likely at some point; 100 class-action lawsuits appear untenable, with potentially thousands of players involved, though there have been class-action lawsuits representing millions of people.

--Some of the plaintiffs, like OU's Cory Brandon, are bitter towards their school. Others, like Tulsa's Donald Gobert, are not.

--Among the claimed conditions are severe depression disorders and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive degenerative brain disease).

--The potential liability numbers are astronomical. The NFL figures were around $1 billion, but the numbers of players involved in college football are exponentially larger.

--College football is safer today because of concussion protocol, but lawyers for players say that's the point. It wasn't safe in the past.

--Other sports, such as women's soccer, are sure to follow in the class-action suits.

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