The new and improved concussion thread

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Llama19

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Jan 19, 2013
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^^^ And here we go..... @Llama19 .... isnt there a US High School Football case pending as well or was that all just talk? Seem to recall reading something about that a couple of years ago.

If this is the one you are referring to (from 2013)...which was just settled in April for $7,000,000...

Source: blogs.findlaw.com/california_case_law/2018/04/high-school-football-player-settles-concussion-lawsuit-for-7m.html


Or this Illinois class-action case from 2015 that was dismissed...

Source: www.cbsnews.com/news/concussions-lawsuit-against-illinois-high-school-association-dismissed-by-illinois-judge/
 

Fenway

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His brain has been donated to BU - based on this I expect we will learn more

Johnny ‘Pie’ McKenzie, 80, Big, Bad Bruins’ spark plug - The Boston Globe

In 1971, Mr. McKenzie was limited to two goals in seven games when the Bruins were upset by the Canadiens in the first round, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. An X-ray revealed that he had played with a fractured skull, which he suffered in the first game.

Mr. McKenzie shrugged off the injury. “It really wasn’t much as skull fractures go,” he said, according to NHL.com. “Just a little bone where the nose is hooked onto the forehead. It was unhooked.’’
 

powerstuck

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Just read that in the NHL old players suing the league, there is proof that Habs, Flames and Devils were actively ignoring the protocol to detect concussions and enforce the CTE protocol.

Court documents state that the league knew in 2007 Devils didn't enforce the protocol by more than one occasion (protocol was in existence for 10 years back then).

Source in french
 

Llama19

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Everything's Not O.K.

To quote:

"But over time, all those hits to the head … they add up. And when you look back on it, honestly, it’s hard not to shake your head at how bad things actually were.

I mean, I had eight or 10 confirmed concussions when I played in the NHL, but who knows how many others I just simply played through? I’d bet I had actually more like 20 or 30 of them altogether, and even that might be a bit low."

Source: www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/nick-boynton-everythings-not-ok
 

LadyStanley

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As I posted Boynton's article above, one of the things that hit me was that one team's response to him saying he had head trauma was to trade him.

His response to that was going back to saying nothing about the injuries/symptoms.

Is that culture, or league pressure to suppress the injury/treatment?
 

Llama19

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Boynton joins NHL concussion lawsuit, pledges brain to science

To quote:

"Former National Hockey League defenceman Nick Boynton says he is joining the concussion lawsuit against the league and pledging his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation in Boston.

“I think the NHL has misread its hand,” Boynton said in an interview on Wednesday with TSN. “This is not going away. This is much bigger than they hoped. I don’t want any money at all. I just want research and funding and for them to have neurologists for teams."

Source: www.tsn.ca/boynton-joins-nhl-concussion-lawsuit-pledges-brain-to-science-1.1119360
 

Fenway

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:popcorn::popcorn:

Former Blackhawks' Daniel Carcillo, Nick Boynton sue NHL over brain injuries

Former Blackhawks forward Daniel Carcillo and defenseman Nick Boynton are suing the NHL for withholding information regarding traumatic brain injuries.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by Chicago firm Corboy & Demetrio in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, claims the NHL is a “league of denial” that didn’t give players proper information regarding concussions and what the longterm effects of repeated blows to the head can be.
Both Carcillo and Boynton said they have suffered repeated brain injuries including concussions throughout their professional hockey careers. Carcillo played in the NHL for nine season, while Boynton played for 11.

The lawsuit also claims that the league “allowed and encouraged” players to play through concussions.
 

joestevens29

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Apr 30, 2009
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https://www.tsn.ca/talent/nhlpa-shelved-concussion-support-program-over-privacy-concerns-1.1115784

NHLPA put together kinda a concussion self help group on their password protected player site, but shelved in circa 2011 due to privacy concerns.
I really don't get why the union doesn't take more heat then they do. It is one of their main roles to make sure that conditions aren't bad and to protect their workers. They sure seem to not do a lot to fix anything themselves. Any other union that I know of in Alberta would be up in arms if they knew their workers were in danger and that the company wasn't doing enough to protect them.
 
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sawchuk1971

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Judge denies request to certify NHL concussion lawsuit as class action


https://www.tsn.ca/judge-denies-request-to-certify-nhl-concussion-lawsuit-as-class-action-1.1138559

Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s decision comes more than four years after the landmark case against the NHL was first filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Had Judge Nelson decided to approve the case as a class action, some 5,000 former NHL players would have automatically become plaintiffs, hiking the stakes for the NHL and raising the league’s potential financial liability.

Now the roughly 300 former players who have either filed a lawsuit against the NHL or retained lawyers to do so will have to argue their claims individually
 

LadyStanley

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Class-action status denied for NHL concussion lawsuit by ex-players

Reuters article

But she [the judge] cited "widespread differences in applicable state laws" that govern the kind of medical monitoring sought by the players as a remedy, saying such disparities would pose "significant case management difficulties."
...
The lawsuit had proposed creating two classes of plaintiffs. One would consist of all living retired NHL players, and the other of those living and dead who were clinically diagnosed as suffering from neurological disorders linked to head trauma.

Have to wonder if various law firms representing residents/claimants from different states respectively will do a group thing together.
 

GreatBear

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Feb 18, 2009
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Class-action status denied for NHL concussion lawsuit by ex-players

Reuters article



Have to wonder if various law firms representing residents/claimants from different states respectively will do a group thing together.

I would expect lawyers representing different clients to fully share information and strategy with each other. Plaintiff's lawyers have done so in many other types of claims. Having represented a defendant that had a number of different claimed product designs with multiple claims (including one with over 1,000 claims) in my past life I regularly had to deal with plaintiffs groups/committees representing multiple plaintiffs with similar claims.

It is likely that the assembled plaintiff attorneys will try to chose a few of their best cases and push those forward more rapidly, trying to let those cases serve as "test" cases as to both the likelihood of success and verdict value. If those cases result in large verdicts or settlements then those verdicts/settlements can be used to pressure the league and teams for settlements on the remaining cases. Just look at the $4.9 billion verdict in the Johnson & Johnson talcum powder case to see how this individual case may impact other talcum powder cases, even though the $4.9 billion jury award will almost certainly be very significantly reduced). This strategy does not always work since the multiple courts that will handle these cases may have different calendar requirements and speeds, and some cases, even if weaker or smaller, may end up being tried or settled first due to court administration that speeds those cases to trail.

From a league perspective this is a significant victory. No defendant ever wants to try a class action simply because of the massive risk involved in such a case. By breaking the claims into individual claims the defendants are better able to minimize the overall risk. The only real disadvantage to no class certification is that the defense costs can be more expensive if the defendants have to pay attorneys to handle 300 cases rather than one class action. However, in my case we always thought that those additional defense costs were a small price to pay for not having to deal with the risk of a class action.
 

Fenway

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Good lord

UNC's Fedora: Game of football is 'under attack'


North Carolina coach Larry Fedora drew heat for doubting a link between football and CTE at Wednesday's ACC Kickoff event, saying he believed there were people using the data in hopes of destroying the game.

Fedora was asked about changes to the kickoff rule in college football, and he offered an extended oratory disputing the relationship between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy and suggested that softening the game could be part of a larger concern.
"Our game is under attack," Fedora told reporters. "I fear the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won't recognize it in 10 years. And if it does, our country will go down, too."

Fedora said he had talked to military personnel who had suggested the success of the United States military was due, in part, to the number of football players who went on to join the armed forces.
 

LadyStanley

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After latest ruling, what happens next in concussion lawsuit...

Athletic (paywall) Strang on what happens next in NHL concussion case.
It’s been less than a week since the decision was rendered, so there’s still a lot to be sorted out, but lead counsel for the plaintiffs Charles Zimmerman told The Athletic on Tuesday that the Plaintiffs Executive Committee will meet soon to analyze and decide the best course of action.

“We thought we had a class that could and should have been certified but we recognized it was always something that represented some risk,” Zimmerman said. “We have plenty of cases we’re ready to prepare for trial because the players with significant injuries are going to want their cases tried on personal injury cases.”

Zimmerman acknowledged that appealing Nelson’s decision remains an option, though there has been no conclusion yet. Another likely option, and one that is used frequently in cases of mass tort, is to use “bellwether” cases to adjudicate the matter. A bellwether case is a case that is representative of other similar cases, so it provides a more efficient option of grouping cases together versus trying every case individually.

So, no clear course, yet.
 

LadyStanley

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Interesting discussion on the main issue of "medical monitoring" was what crossed the line for the judge to not allow class status. The various states have such divergent requirements for that phrase that it's very hard (say, unlike Love Canal medical monitoring) to really quantify cost for mental issues.

NFL got around this in their suit by having a second class of those not yet diagnosed and (planned) monies put aside for their treatment.
 
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