Rugby-injuries case can continue – judge
Hundreds of head-injury claims from former rugby players have narrowly survived strike-out attempts in London's High Court, according to the England-and-Wales Law Society Gazette.
Senior Master Cook ruled that he should apply relief from sanctions in the interests of justice, despite court orders being repeatedly missed.
The judge, however, imposed conditions on his decision and was highly critical of the handling of the claims by the players’ former solicitor Richard Boardman, owner of London firm Rylands Garth, which has now come off the record in the case.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that KP Law had agreed to represent the claimants ahead of the court's ruling on the strike-out applications from rugby's governing bodies.
Resources
Cook said that the court could "take comfort" from the fact that the claimants were no longer to be represented by Rylands Garth.
"Had Mr Boardman remained the solicitor conducting this litigation, I could not have had any confidence that future court orders would be complied with timeously or at all," the master added.
The Gazette said that Rylands Garth was a relatively new firm with one qualified solicitor, Boardman.
Cook said that he had been "concerned for some time" about whether Boardman and his firm could deploy sufficient resources to conduct such complex and large-scale litigation.
Disclosure requests
The court heard that there had been constant issues with the obtaining of proper disclosure of medical records by the claimants.
Disclosure requests and ‘unless orders’ were not complied with, despite deadline extensions being agreed.
The master observed that Boardman had been warned several times by the court about the scope of his disclosure obligations and had been given multiple opportunities to comply with an order from June 2024.
Cook added, however, that he was prepared "with some hesitation" to grant relief from sanction subject to conditions about disclosure obligations to be decided later.
'Blameless' claimants
The judge noted that the litigation was still a long way from trial and that delays could be remedied by tight case management.
The judge said that the appointment of new solicitors with sufficient resources to conduct the litigation was an important factor and that "blameless" individual claimants should not suffer from their lawyers’ conduct.
Striking out the claims would also lead to many claims for loss of chance against Rylands Garth that would, in turn, place significant extra pressure on court resources, he added.