The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will soon decide whether to approve a class action settlement between the National Football League and lawyers for former NFL players who suffer now or in the future from certain brain injuries related to playing professional football.
I’m writing here about a serious defect in the agreement: the failure to fairly account for inflation in future awards to former players. (Disclosure: I am of counsel to a law firm representing objectors to the settlement.) It is now understood that repeated blows to the head associated with football leads to a variety of brain injuries and neurological diseases. The settlement purports to provide fair compensation to all former NFL players, including those who are currently injured and those who become injured over the next 65 years. For instance, the settlement would provide compensation to a former NFL player with Parkinson’s disease or dementia, whether his diagnosis came last year or arrives in, say, 2025.
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