Rugby brain injury claim may be thrown out, court hears

A legal claim involving hundreds of former rugby players who allege they have suffered brain injuries during their careers is at risk of being thrown out if their lawyers cannot find all their medical records, the High Court has heard.

A mix of professional and amateur players claim that World Rugby, Welsh Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Rugby Football League and the British Amateur Rugby League Association breached a duty of care to protect them from injury.

Lawyers for the players say they have suffered neurological injuries such as early onset dementia, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and motor neurone disease because of repeated blows suffered throughout their sporting lives.

They argue that the governing bodies had the knowledge and resources to understand the likelihood of brain damage, but did not take steps against this or inform the players.

Each of the governing bodies denies wrongdoing and is defending the legal claims.

At a hearing in London on Friday, Susan Rodway KC, for the players, said in written submissions that it is “impossible” for her team to comply with a previous court order if it requires them to provide a full list of medical records for individual players.

In a challenge to the order, she said: “Not only would such a practice fly in the face of the ordinary principles in personal injury and clinical negligence actions, it would almost certainly be an endless and futile task.”

She described the order as “disproportionate and oppressive, irrational and perverse”.

The barrister added: “To put this bluntly, the task is akin to the folklore ‘wicked stepmothers’ who compel the princess to mow vast meadows using only nail scissors.”

She said it is “bound to fail” and that non-compliance with such an order “is to be met with strike out of all the claimants’ claims without further order”.

Ms Rodway also described the progress of the litigation as “glacial”, with the first letter stating intention to take legal action being issued in December 2020.

Disputed

William Audland KC, for the Rugby Football League and the British Amateur Rugby League Association, said Ms Rodway’s appeal has been brought out of time and should be dismissed.

He said the medical records were due to be provided by October 2024.

He added: “An order requiring disclosure of all medical records in personal injury claims is not disproportionate, oppressive, irrational or perverse.

“It is essential to the just disposal of proceedings in which causation is heavily disputed and in which the parties must select a limited number of lead claims with which to test all issues.”

He also said that after a review of documents, his team found medical records to be missing in about 90% of cases.

Success

The barrister also said the appeal should be dismissed because it “does not have a real prospect of success”.

He continued: “The defendant can only properly engage in the process of selecting lead claimants when it has full disclosure of medical records in relation to each claimant, such as to be able to make an informed decision on who to select from the overall cohort.

“These are head injury claims, with a range of symptoms reported, some of which are subtle and many of which could have any number of causes.

“That evidence will be found primarily within claimants’ medical records.”

The hearing, before Mr Justice Dexter Dias, is expected to continue at a later date.