{"id":821628,"date":"2026-07-24T20:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821628\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T20:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:59:11","slug":"dismissed-solicitor-is-still-acting-for-footballers-in-brain-injury-court-case-concussion-in-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821628\/","title":{"rendered":"Dismissed solicitor is still acting for footballers in brain injury court case | Concussion in sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The solicitor dismissed by a group of over 1,000 rugby players with brain injuries who are suing the sport\u2019s governing bodies is still leading a similar claim on behalf of dozens of former footballers.<\/p>\n

Richard Boardman told a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice this week of his intention to \u201ccome off the record,\u201d with the claimants indicating that they had unanimously agreed to terminate their dealings with his firm, Rylands Garth.<\/p>\n

Boardman\u2019s management of the case was strongly criticised by the presiding judge, Master Jeremy Cook, who highlighted alleged \u201cwidespread non-compliance\u201d and \u201cmisleading evidence,\u201d with particular regard to his failure to make good on a pledge to provide the court with all of the claimants\u2019 medical records.<\/p>\n

Master Cook is now considering whether to strike off the case entirely, which would leave a large cohort of former union and league players including England World Cup winners Steve Thompson and Phil Vickery with nothing to show for six years of gruelling legal battles.<\/p>\n

Despite being dismissed by the rugby players however, Boardman is still acting on behalf of a group of 23 former footballers who are suing the Football Association, English Football League and FA of Wales as a result of permanent brain injuries sustained during their careers.<\/p>\n

The group includes the families of World Cup hero Nobby Stiles, former Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear and four former players from the Premier League era. With a far smaller number of claimants, and as a result fewer medical records, the football case is seen as more manageable for Rylands Garth.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, the FA changed their defence team in the case earlier this year and both parties remain in the process of exchanging documents.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n

Our picture editors select their favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The rugby claimants are in the process of appointing new solicitors, but until they have done so Boardman remains notionally in charge despite being absent from court for the last day and a half of hearings this week. The firm Leigh Day has been consulting on the case since February and is considering whether to take it on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The solicitor dismissed by a group of over 1,000 rugby players with brain injuries who are suing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-821628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}