Tampa Brain Injury Attorney Robert Joyce Comments on NFL Concussion Settlement

Tampa, FL (Law Firm Newswire) May 24, 2016 – An approximately $1 billion settlement plan between the NFL and former players who filed thousands of brain injury lawsuits has been upheld by a federal appeals court.

A district judge first approved the settlement nearly one year ago. If the case is not appealed further, then former players who have already been diagnosed with brain injuries from concussions could start receiving benefits in a matter of months. Some former players were opposed to the deal, and they are considering their options.

“Brain injury lawsuits can be very complex,” said Robert Joyce, a Tampa brain injury attorney with Joyce & Reyes. “An injury to the brain can have lifelong effects that are not always apparent at the time the injury first occurs.”

More than 20,000 NFL retirees would be covered by the settlement over the next 65 years. The league estimates that about 6,000 players, nearly 30 percent, could develop Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. About 99 percent of the players approved of the settlement, with fewer than 200 opting out.

The NFL did not admit fault in the settlement. Recently, an NFL official admitted for the first time that there is a connection between playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The appeals court said that the settlement should not be overturned based on that admission. Judge Thomas L. Ambro wrote the decision for the unanimous panel of three judges. He wrote that the settlement would provide “immediate relief” to NFL players suffering from the “lasting scars” of their career, and that the hope of a better deal was not reason enough to reject the settlement.

Learn more at http://www.joyceandreyespa.com Joyce and Reyes Law Firm, P.A. 307 S Hyde Park Ave Tampa, FL 33606 Call: 813.251.2007