The National Football League will pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 former players over the league’s once lackadaisical approach to concussions and head injuries. The settlement in the much-publicized suit was announced on Aug. 29.
Despite a massive payout that nearly equals the cost of building a new football stadium, the New York Times called the settlement a victory for the NFL. The Times reported that the NFL could have faced billions in liability. (more…)
Brain Injury Law Center Again Listed in “Best Lawyers in America”
We are pleased to share with you that Stephen M. Smith, the founder and director of the Brain Injury Law Center, has once again been named among the Best Lawyers in America for the 2014 edition of the prestigious publication. He was named in the categories of medical malpractice and personal injury litigation.
These listings are based on confidential peer reviews by attorneys across the nation. Now in its 20th edition, Best Lawyers describes itself as “the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession.”
This is not the first time the Brain Injury Law Center has received this distinction. Stephen Smith has been listed as a Best Lawyer since 1995. (more…)
Kevin Pearce was a rising star in the world of extreme snowboarding. He was winning medals and on his way to the Olympics – until his attempt at a daring stunt went wrong and left him in a coma.
That accident, his ensuing recovery and his previous ascent to the top of his sport are the subject of a film that is rapidly gaining the attention of critics and audiences. The Crash Reel debuted on HBO last month, and it is being followed up by a theatrical release.
“His story is so extreme,” filmmaker Lucy Walker told HBO, “it dramatizes how high the stakes are. And his passion for the sport is incredible given what he’s been through. There’s something very intense about that. He’s just a very charming and humble young man, even when his eyes were looking in different directions and he kept reintroducing himself because he couldn’t remember meeting me.” (more…)
The doctors thought Ryan Boyle would die after he was struck by a truck a decade ago at age 9. His best outcome, they said, was life in hospital bed, living with the help of machines.
But it didn’t work out that way for the Connecticut boy – not even close. Boyle, now 19, bucked some serious odds to recover from a traumatic brain injury with far more success than anyone had predicted. He is now an author, a college student and an aspiring motivational speaker.
He has quite the motivational story to tell. (more…)
Let’s start with the good news.
Since 1980, the number of brain injury deaths that stem from automobile accidents has fallen by 40%, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The bad news: During a much shorter time period – 2001 to 2009 – traumatic brain injuries in people under the age of 19 caused by sports rose 62%, the CDC reported.
Everyone knows that a car accident can be dangerous in a number of ways. There is little awareness left to grow on that front. But not everyone knows that playing sports – even at youth levels – can cause the same sort of injuries. (Even the foot-based game of soccer can damage the brain, we have learned.)
The facts are not here to scare, but instead to educate. (more…)
While any sport can cause an injury, we generally think of soccer as relatively safe. After all, it isn’t currently embroiled in a head-injury scandal like the National Football League. Rough contact is not part of the game, like it is in hockey.
But a new study finds that a common soccer technique might make the world’s most popular sport dangerous for the brain. A study by Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that “heading” a soccer ball – knocking an airborne ball with the head towards the net or a teammate—was linked to damage resembling a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. The findings were published in Radiology. (more…)
Ben Richards would have rather lost a limb in Iraq than suffer the wounds he did — the ones no one could see.
Appearing on 60 Minutes on May 5, the retired Army major recalled rushing into battle still reeling from a concussion days before, fighting the enemy while unable to see straight. Staying alive in combat is a struggle all its own. Richards didn’t need to be fighting his own brain — he had enough enemies in Iraq.
This became all too common. Richards would suffer several concussions, and they would end his Army career. They came close to ending his life. (more…)
It’s no secret that most children lead rough-and-tumble lives. You don’t learn to walk without falling first. Every kid bumps his or her head at some point and cries, and parents come running.
But how do those parents know whether it’s just a minor bump — a part of growing up — or something more serious? Serious brain injuries do not always seem like much when they occur.
Researchers have come up with a set of guidelines for determining this after a large study in 2009. Every parent should become familiar with them. (more…)
A federal judge will hear arguments today from lawyers seeking to learn what National Football League officials knew about the prevalence of head injuries in the sport and when they knew it.
The attorneys represent about 4,200 retired NFL players who are suing the league. They allege the short- and long-term dangers of repeated head injuries were known to the league but ignored. Concussions, football players have said, were treated as simply a part of the game despite the lasting impact they can have.
The arguments today are being heard in a Philadelphia federal courtroom. The stakes are high. A judge will decide if the 4,200 cases belong before the courts or whether, due to collective bargaining agreements, they should instead be settled in arbitration.
If the cases remain in court, the players’ attorneys would have access to NFL information through the discovery process. They allege the league was aware of the extent of dangers and actively tried to hide them from players.
“The NFL failed to live up to its responsibility: it negligently heightened players’ exposure to repeated head trauma and fraudulently concealed the chronic brain injuries that resulted,” they wrote in a legal brief, the Associated Press reported.
The NFL, meanwhile, has insisted player safety has always been the highest priority and that they relied on the best available science at all times.
Both sides are represented by politically connected, high-profile attorneys. Paul Clement, who represents the NFL, is a former solicitor general under President George W. Bush who argued the administration’s positions to the U.S. Supreme Court. The lead attorney for the players is David Frederick, who has argued pharmaceutical and other cases to the Supreme Court and is an ally of President Barack Obama, according to the AP.
Chronic head injuries can cause a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. This can lead to depression, aggression, serious cognitive impairment and dementia. A 2012 study examined the donated brains of 85 people who suffered head trauma in football, hockey, boxing or service in combat. Sixty-eight of them — 4 out of every 5 — showed signs of CTE.
Athletes and commentators have wondered about the possible links between repeated head trauma and a slew of recent football tragedies, including the suicide of Junior Seau and the murder-suicide carried out by Jovan Belcher.
If the NFL once turned a blind eye to head injuries, few could accuse them of doing so now. The league recently teamed up with General Electric on a $60 million project to develop new imaging technology to better understand concussions. Money for future research is also including in the NFL’s bargaining agreement with the union representing its players.
The Brain Injury Law Center is committed to representing people who have suffered debilitating head injuries. We support efforts to better understand the nature of these traumas. Contact us if you have suffered a serious brain injury due to another’s negligence.
Kimberly Russell knows about brain injuries.
Her daughter, now 16, underwent her first brain surgery when she was just 5 days old. Stints at the hospital followed — sometimes for months at a time. Russell is grateful her large family was there to offer support, but they ultimately had to tend to their own lives, while Russell’s remained focused on her daughter’s devastating injury.
“I felt so alone,” she told the Brain Injury Law Center recently. “I had some of the best doctors out there, but none of them ever said, ‘Kim, this is a website, an organization, a resource you can go to to find out more about your daughter’s brain injury.’ That’s what we want to be to people.”
She’s referring to TryMunity, a non-profit online community that brings people together who are affected by traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Users create profiles and interact with one another much like they do on popular social media platforms like Facebook.
Russell is the executive director of the organization, which is based in McKinney, Texas. Here are some highlights from our conversation with her: (more…)
