NFL Concussion Lawsuit Tracker: 37

On Friday, The Locks Law Firm filed its ninth concussion-related lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, is a mass tort and includes 25 former players and their wives: Wes Hopkins, et al v. NFL. The Firm now represents 325 former players. The Hopkins suit is no different than the others, asserting counts of negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, fraudulent concealment, conspiracy to defraud, medical monitoring, loss of consortium and declaratory relief.

The lawsuit includes several young former players: Richard Parson, Jr. (31); Timothy Edwards (31); Rockne Freitas (32); Kevin Harris (33); Noah Herron (29); Alan Reuber, Jr. (31) and Shyrone Stith (33). According to my count, Herron is the youngest former player to be named in the 37 concussion-related lawsuits.

As I repeatedly say, I don’t think we are anywhere close to seeing the end. There are now over 800 former players­­–roughly 806–involved, a small fraction of the thousands of former and retired players that could potentially join the lawsuits.

The lawsuits will continue to pile on, and they will slowly become “tag-along actions” or “related actions” joining the multidistrict litigation (MDL) in Philadelphia.