475 ex-athletes seek to combine concussion lawsuits،
The High Court in London will hear a plea on Friday seeking to consolidate the claims of 475 former sportspeople with neurological disabilities into a class action against their sports’ governing bodies, law firm Rylands Garth said.
The company announced on Tuesday that it would seek a group litigation order (GLO) for claims by 450 rugby players and 25 football players against the global and UK governing bodies of Rugby Union, Rugby League and football .
GLOs are typically associated with occupational disease claims such as respiratory problems among coal miners.
A source at World Rugby told Reuters on Tuesday the case involved 268 rugby union plaintiffs.
The players allege that governing bodies failed in their duty of care, leaving them exposed to concussion-related and non-concussion-related injuries leading to conditions such as motor neurone disease, dementia praecox, chronic traumatic encephalopathy ( CTE), epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.
“We are seeing the same worrying symptoms in many cases across all three contact sports,” Rylands Garth said in a statement.
“These symptoms include chronic depression, aggression, significant memory loss, incontinence, drug and alcohol abuse and, in some cases, suicide attempts.”
World Rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they were saddened by the difficulties faced by former players.
“Despite court orders, the players’ lawyers have not yet provided full details of the complaints filed against us and we therefore cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings, nor contact the players directly,” the governing bodies added. .
“We would like the players involved to know that we listen, we care and we continue to uphold player welfare as the sport’s number one priority.
“Players and parents can be confident that rugby is as safe as a contact sport can be. Rugby will always draw on the latest scientific advances when it comes to taking action for good -be players.”
Formal proceedings in the case were opened at the High Court in London on June 23.
World Rugby has taken several steps to mitigate the impact of concussions, including introducing smart mouthguard technology to assess head impact and launching trials to lower tackle heights in community rugby .
“All of rugby cares deeply about all our current and former players. We will never stand idly by when it comes to player welfare,” the governing bodies added.
