The NHL struck a blow to the concussion lawsuit brought by former players earlier this summer, and is now attempting to work out a settlement. The lawsuit began five years ago with players alleging that the league’s inadequate and outdated handling of concussions negatively affected their health.
Earlier this summer, a judge in Minnesota ruled that the case could not proceed as a class action lawsuit (meaning that 5,000 former players will not automatically be added to the lawsuit, and would have to file independently).
In an hour-long hearing today in Minneapolis, judge overseeing NHL concussion lawsuits ordered NHL & lawyers for players to spend 2 weeks trying to come to agreement on how to proceed with individual cases.
(Any agreement highly unlikely.)— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 30, 2018
Look for NHL to ask in 2 weeks that all 150-odd lawsuits be remanded to original jurisdictions.
Plaintiff lawyers will likely request all pretrial motions be handled in Minn. & that bellwether cases begin asap.
(Lawsuit filed by family of Steve Montador a likely candidate.)— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 30, 2018
Subsequently, TSN obtained transcripts from a recent court hearing where the judge comments on attempts to reach a “private resolution.”
DEVELOPING STORY: Lawyers for the #NHL have engaged in settlement negotiations with attorneys for former players who allege the league lied to them about the dangers of repeated head trauma and concussions.
More from @rwesthead: https://t.co/7KDbfdxRmG pic.twitter.com/MdpeW4UsVg
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 5, 2018
The NHL is trying to settle now in order to avoid the hundreds of individual lawsuits that could be brought against them. 138 players have already filed and 150 more have retained lawyers. The first case will likey be that of Steve Montador, who passed away at the age of 35, and whose autopsy showed that his “brain was decaying due to the head hits he endured during his NHL career.”
Former Washington Capitals enforcer Stephen Peat has struggled with mental health, which his family believes is “rooted in brain trauma sustained on the ice in so many fights.” They had been “closely tracking the class-action lawsuit against the N.H.L. brought by players saying that the league concealed information about the dangers of concussions.”
While the denial of the class action suit was certainly a blow to the players, it could end up working in their favor. TSN spoke with Jodi Balsam, a former lawyer for the NFL, who explains why the NHL may be making this move now.
“They’ve won a fairly consequential pre-trial ruling,” Balsam said. “With that win, the NHL is in the best settlement posture it will be in a while. It may be the best moment for the NHL to consider settling.
“If the NHL decides to go to trial on all these cases, they still have to go through further discovery and depositions, and then prepare to try hundreds of individual cases across the country. Maybe the NHL is spread thin doing that.
“As things stand, the NHL may have to eventually go into court facing hundreds of cases across the country,” she said. “This case is like tobacco where lawyers tried to form a class action and failed because every smoker had a different story and health background. Then lawyers were able to go into courts across America, play to different juries, and have the opportunity to win a precedent-setting case. Juries are unpredictable. Every trial is a crapshoot.”
As more players step forward and share their stories, pressure increases on the NHL to improve its handling of hits to the head during games and concussion protocol and treatment afterwards.
Hockey legend Ken Dryden is calling on the NHL to penalize any play that involves a player making contact with the head of another — no exceptions.
"Concussions affect a life. They don't just affect the ability to play a sport." https://t.co/wwNe0C1yro pic.twitter.com/LwUeZIcN0N
— CBC-The Current (@TheCurrentCBC) August 27, 2018
Headline photo: Harry How/Getty Images North America
