On Monday, July 31, 2017, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson awarded Boston University $96,300 in attorneys’ fees and costs to be paid by the National Hockey League. The dispute stemmed from the NHL’s demand for research and data from about 400 former athletes’ brains studied by BU’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. The University refused the request on the grounds that only six of the brains studied were those of former NHL players, and Judge Nelson honored their request for fees and costs stemming from the demand.
The NHL had argued the information they sought was relevant, but Judge Nelson concluded the NHL failed to demonstrate a need for most of the material requested and that their demand placed an unreasonable burden on BU to produce mostly irrelevant information.