Deadline To File Claim Submission For CDW Global Settlement 11 Days From Now

As or today, Judge Fallon has not extended the claims deadline.  Therefore, the deadline for you to submit a Claim Form is Monday, September 30, 2013. 

 

Supplemental documentation may be submitted after September 30, 2013. 

NCAA Concussion Lawsuit Heating Up

With all of the news a few weeks ago about the NFL concussion lawsuit settlement, it was amazing that more news was not devoted to its "sister" lawsuit against the NCAA. One of them has been going on for more than two years. See this link below for details on that suit:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/23222960/ncaa-considering-settlement-of-arrington-concussion-suit

The original lawsuit seeks class certification which would represent any college sports athlete who played in a NCAA-participating school. One of the named plaintiffs is a female, so it is not all about football.

Another lawsuit was filed in recent weeks seeking class certification for only those college football players who did not play in the NFL. Al.com posted a great article examining the differences in those lawsuits and the power struggle going on between the lawyers. See the below link for that article:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/09/ncaa_concussion_plaintiffs_dif.html#incart_river

With all of the heat the NCAA is taking in the O'Bannon case (see my numerous blogs related to that subject), the last thing the NCAA needs is more bad press and more lawsuits. Is the NCAA's days numbered? We'll know more when the Judges rule on the class cert motions in all of these respective lawsuits.

ASR Bellwether Trial Delayed

The first bellwether trial to come out of the MDL has been postponed by Judge Katz for two weeks. The trial was supposed to start today, Monday, September 9 in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

The reason for the continuance is that there remain outstanding issues that must be resolved by the Court.

 

For instance, the Defendants filed a Daubert motion last Wednesday on one of the Plaintiff's key expert witnesses.  Also, the Court had not yet ruled on the critical choice of law issue that impacts punitive damages (DePuy arguing Indiana or for United Kingdom law to apply).  Defendants also just objected to 600 of the 700 exhibits identified by the Plaintiff for which the Court has yet to even begun to review.  DePuy served a rebuttal expert report  yesterday that the Plaintiff has not had a chance to address.

 

These and other pending motions must be resolved before either side can open its case and therefore the Court is opting to adjourn the trial for two weeks.