original post at http://legalbroadcastnetwork.com/
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia has upheld the plan by the NFL to settle thousands of concussion lawsuits filed by former players. The estimated one billion dollar plan would cover more than twenty thousand NFL retirees for the next 65 years. This decision comes weeks after an NFL official acknowledged to Congress for the first time the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
For years, this CTE cloud has hung over the NFL with complaints that the league hid the risks of repeated concussions. This deal means the NFL may never have to disclose what they in fact knew.
Had this gone to trial, players and their families would have had to wait years before being awarded medical testing or financial settlements. There are retired players opposed to the plan, their reasoning is that it doesn’t cover mood and behavioral disorders that other researchers have linked to CTE. The agreement does call for reviews by the parties every ten years to consider new scientific findings. The settlement also grants up to four million dollars for prior deaths involving CTE.
