The recent settlement of head injury litigation brought by 4,500 retired professional football players raises a host of concerns for current and former athletes, and for insurance companies.
The settlement will cover 18,000 plus retired professional football players. If players in other sports were to file similar lawsuits, the number of potential claimants could be in the millions, according to Jim Dorion, the Complex Liability Consulting Practice Leader at Marsh.
Discussing the implications of the settlement on insurers, Mr. Dorion noted that “historic insurance assets may provide critical funding for defense and indemnity costs arising from head-injury claims.”
Describing how coverage for head-injury claims may be applied, Mr. Dorion suggested that “insurers may seek to challenge coverage on a number of grounds,” including:
- No allegations of injury during the applicable policy period.
- No coverage based on the “expected or intended injury” exclusion.
- Lack of an “occurrence.”
- Common law “known loss” or “known risk” defenses.
- Application of self-insured retentions of deductibles.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].