Kenneth Goldblatt | October 20, 2018 | Personal Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury lawyer in New York, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, Goldblatt and Associates, would like to share this brain injury news with you.

When a tentative $765 million settlement was reached in August in concussion suits filed by more than 4,500 former players against the NFL, both sides lauded it as a way to get help to players in a timely fashion and avoid years of legal battling and delays before going to a jury trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Anita Brody rejected a motion for preliminary approval of the class action settlement. She said she was “primarily concerned” there is not enough money in the settlement.

Both sides expressed confidence they can show Brody the settlement is sufficient. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league was “confident that the settlement is fair and adequate” and looks forward to “demonstrating that to the court.”

In the settlement, the NFL made no admissions about how it handled concussions in decades past. “The attorneys who took on this litigation made some very, very significant and serious allegations of fraud and deceit on the part of the league,” said Kaplen. “When the drum starts to bang and gets louder and louder … the court is going to be compelled … to do its job of protecting the public interest and say (it’s) just not approving the settlement.”

He anticipates the sides will try to show the funding will work. He doesn’t expect that to satisfy the judge.

The settlement contemplates an award fund estimating a 65-year lifespan for the former players. In the proposed settlement, for example, retired players with a qualifying diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease may receive up to $5 million. Those with Parkinson’s disease would be eligible for $3.5 million.

Robert Boland, who teaches sports law and management at New York University, expects a better explained or reworked deal will be approved.

“The judges are third parties. … Even though they encourage settlement strongly, they do have to sign off,” Boland said.

“That’s the important piece. Judge Brody wants to be sure that her settlement is appropriate in the interest of justice as well.”

Boland does not anticipate a trial: “It certainly is open, when rejecting settlement, that the case could be rescheduled for discovery (pre-trial probing of documents and sworn statements) and trial. I think the odds of going down that path are astronomically small. … We’ll see a new proposed settlement built off the framework of the prior one.”

Traumatic brain injury can have long lasting consequences for the victim in extensive medical bills and post treatment. To learn more about Traumatic Brain Injury, contact the New York brain injury lawyers at Goldblatt and Associates to schedule a free consultation. We serve accident victims in New York including New York City, Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester and Putnam Counties, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. We offer a free consultation, and receive no fee unless we are successful.   Call 1-800-567-9888 today.