Rugby head injury trial could be delayed until 2027 after court spat
A high-profile trial against rugby’s governing bodies brought by former players who suffered head injuries may not take place until 2027 after key legal voices sparred in the High Court.
Delays caused by holding further case management conferences (CMC), which deal with any pre-trial admin such as available days and application requests, will likely push a trial beyond 2026, according to legal publication The Lawyer.
Opposing parties met this week at the High Court to thrash out the administrative details ahead of a potential trial, in which law firm Rylands Garth is bringing a series of concussion cases against the likes of the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union.
“This claim is going to proceed,” Senior Master Cook told the court this week, but he ordered a further CMC for July – which will delay the process – ahead of an expected defence by governing bodies in October.
But the two sides clashed this week, accusing each other of late applications, disagreements over medical records and disclosure failures – all of which has heightened tensions in a case that could set a precedent for hundreds of legal claims going forward.
“I’m hearing one side from this side of the room, and another from this side of the room,” Senior Master Cook said as 12KBW’s William Audland KC and 39 Essex Chambers’ Susan Rodway KC argued.
Senior Master Cook made a quip referring to Moses taking 40 years to cross the desert, according to The Lawyer, in expressing his desire to speed up the process.
But the CMC cemented some details for the potential trial, including a 30 May cut-off for new claimants joining the process.
Furthermore, both the defendants and claimants will put forward 28 test claimants which will be cut to 21 for the trial.
The judge shot down a request from the defendants for further neurological tests on the potential claimants in case there were unknown “environmental factors”.
A Rylands Garth spokesperson said: “This has been an excellent week in court for the claimants.
“After two hard-fought days at the High Court we finally have some momentum behind these vitally important cases, despite continuous efforts by the defendants to stall and delay their progress.
“The decision by Senior Master Cook to order two more CMCs this year, shows that he is as keen as we are to get this case to trial by 2026,” they added.
A joint World Rugby, RFU and WRU statement read: “We welcome the progress made in the legal case today.
“It is in the interests of both rugby and the players involved, that this case is heard as soon as possible, and we will continue to make every effort to ensure that happens.
“We remain concerned by the claimants lawyer’s statement that ‘not all the players involved in the case have been tested’. As a result, as the judge put it, the case the claimants’ lawyers are making resembles a ‘jigsaw with a piece missing’.”