Ex-player, Turned Lawyer, Leads Latest Group of Plaintiffs
The Locks Law Firm continues to attract clients. Regardless of how Locks goes about getting his clients, he has the dominant share of players, and they continue to flock to him in droves.
On Monday, Gene Locks filed two more concussion lawsuits against the NFL. Ex-player, now a lawyer, Brad Culpepper, is the lead plaintiff in the first lawsuit. He is among 26 former players.
Some of the more notable players include two-time Pro Bowler, Jim Arnold; longtime Kansas City Chief, J.C. Pearson; one-time Pro Bowler, Len St. Jean; and as he announced on Twitter the other day, Joe Tafoya.
Today I signed up for the NFL concussion lawsuit. Trying to remember how many times I was “dizzy” after hitting someone was not easy.
— Joe Tafoya (@JoeTafoya) May 5, 2012
The second lawsuit is a single-plaintiff complaint, naming only Charley Hannah.
The lawsuits are identical to the other suits filed by Gene Locks, asserting counts of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, negligence, loss of consortium and seeking declaratory relief and medical monitoring.
There are now more than 1,800 former players named in the 70 complaints. Of course, this number will continue to grow in the coming weeks.
Both lawsuit were filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and are captioned Brad Culpepper et al v. NFL and Charles Hannah v. NFL.
I am an attorney, but, admittedly, do not practice in the realm of personal injury. I seem to recall from law school that a worker’s compensation claim is the exclusive remedy for work-related injuries. Is that not the case?
The NFL will raise that argument, but I don’t think it will carry much weight. The plaintiff’s lawyers have crafted the complaint so that it excludes the Clubs. In other words, each respective Club is the player’s employer, not the NFL. However, there will indeed be an argument that any workers’ comp payments should reduce or be an offset to a settlement amount (e.g. similar to a medical lien).