Insurers for the National Football League (NFL) petitioned a New York state court judge on June 14, 2019, demanding “underlying documents” from the NFL’s litigation and settlement in the class-action lawsuit involving over 1,000 former professional football players and their families regarding concussions and chronic brain trauma. The insurers are seeking to escape reimbursing the NFL, which could prompt further litigation. In oral arguments, a coalition of 28 insurers claimed that the NFL did not produce adequate discovery during litigation after its concussion settlement …
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Law Reviving Professional MMA in New York Requires Additional Insurance Protection for Traumatic Brain Injuries
When professional mixed martial arts makes its return to New York State next month, fighters will have an added layer of protection from traumatic brain injuries. During the 2016 legislative session, the New York State legislature passed a requirement that all professional fighters — including both boxing and mixed martial arts — carry $1 million of additional insurance protection per fighter on a given fight card.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s event “UFC 205” will be the first state-sanctioned professional mixed martial arts competition in New …
Continue ReadingNew Insurance Covers Celeb-Endorsed Products from Endorser’s Public Fall from Grace
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) announced a new insurance product called Celebrity Product RecallResponse. According to the company, it is designed to protect companies exposed to risks if a celebrity endorser suffers a public fall from grace or sudden death. It aims to particularly help companies that manufacture and sell products bearing a celebrity’s name or image.
The insurance is triggered by extensive media coverage of an endorser when the endorser allegedly or actually commits a criminal act or other offenses that results in …
Continue ReadingRolling Stones in Legal Battle Against Insurance Underwriters over $12.7M
The Rolling Stones are taking a group of insurance underwriters to court over an insurance claim that was denied. Before their 2014 tour of Asia and Australia, the Rolling Stones took out a $23.9 million insurance policy to cover cancellations resulting from the death of family members and others named in the policy.
The insurance policy was triggered when the group cancelled the Australia and New Zealand concert dates because Mick Jagger’s girlfriend L’Wren Scott committed suicide in her New York apartment on March 17. …
Continue ReadingNHL in Fight with Insurer over Concussion Lawsuits
The National Hockey League is currently being sued in two separate lawsuits by former players who allege that the league concealed the long-term effects of concussions and failed to adequately warn them of the same. On April 17, the NHL was sued again – this time by one of its insurers (TIG Insurance Co., a New Hampshire-based unit of Fairfax Financial Holdings, Ltd.), a company that hopes to limit or avoid its duty to defend the league in the existing cases and the new suits …
Continue ReadingInsurers Seek to Re-Open Arbitration Claim against Armstrong
On February 21, attorneys for the now disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong found themselves back in court. The embattled athlete’s legal team is attempting to fight a motion to re-open a 2006 arbitration decision which forced the Dallas-based sports insurance company SCA Promotions to pay Armstrong $12 million dollars in performance bonuses. As Armstrong has since come out and publicly admitted to doping, SCA believes that it should receive reimbursement for the monies it paid to Armstrong for winning three of Armstrong’s seven Tour de France …
Continue ReadingMissouri Law Could Spell Trouble for NFL’s Chiefs in New Concussion Lawsuit
The NFL and over 4,500 former players are currently attempting to negotiate a settlement in the massive multi-district concussion litigation against the league. In brief, the plaintiffs’ accuse the NFL of intentionally downplaying and concealing the risks of concussions and the role of head injuries in later-life cognitive decline. Negotiations to resolve the matter recently resumed after U.S. District Judge Anita Brody rejected a proposed $765 million settlement deal that had been reached by the parties. Judge Brody strongly believed that this amount would be …
Continue ReadingFor The Third Time, California Courts Rule that the NFL Remains the Away Team
The National Football League (NFL) suffered its third blow from a California appeals court on Tuesday, May 28, 2013. First, the NFL-favored venue of California for the concussion related suits was denied; second, the NFL’s least preferable venue of New York was allowed; and now, California says the NFL will be the visiting team in New York court against 32 insurance companies.
The NFL is looking to pass the bill to insurers for its concussion related lawsuits. The League argued for California jurisdiction …
Continue ReadingNFL Goes 0 for 2 Against Insurance Companies in Court
The National Football League is now 0-2. It lost yet another round on the legal gridiron last week when New York State Supreme Court Judge, Jeffrey K. Oing, ruled that the lawsuit between the NFL and its insurance companies could proceed in NY. This is despite the fact that the NFL filed a similar lawsuit in California first. This echoes a previous ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Shepard Wiley Jr. who held last fall that California was the wrong venue to deal …
Continue ReadingNCAA Program Allows “Exceptional” Athletes to Hedge Against Loss of Future Earning Potential
“Prediction is Very Difficult, Especially about the Future” – Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr may not have had sports in mind when he said this but, yes, predicting the future is hard and that is exactly what makes sports so exciting. Whether it’s the big, unexpected play with only seconds left on the clock or a Cinderella story at a National Championship – unpredictability is why we watch the game. Despite the difficulty, we like to predict the future of star athletes. One big question …
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