More than 1,100 rugby players have been left in limbo after the lawyer at the centre of the sport's concussion lawsuit quit the case. Richard Boardman, whose firm Rylands Garth has represented the hundreds of claimants since legal action was launched in 2020, notified the court that he is stepping away.
The players claim that governing bodies—World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union, the Rugby Football League (RFL) and the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA)—failed to put in place reasonable measures to protect them from serious brain injuries during their playing careers.
Former Wales internationals among claimants
Around 50 former Wales internationals are part of the lawsuit, including Gavin Henson, Lee Byrne, Jonathan Thomas, Ian Gough and Colin Charvis. Alix Popham, Ryan Jones and Dafydd James have gone public with their claims, having all been diagnosed with early onset dementia. Lou Reed, Morgan Stoddart, Hal Luscombe and Rhys Gill are also among those involved, alongside England World Cup winners Steve Thompson, Mark Regan and Phil Vickery, and former Lions Phil Greening and Harry Ellis.
Boardman told the court: “I am writing to inform you and the defendants that my intention is to come off the record in this litigation and I have started taking steps to do so.” According to Telegraph Sport, many players were unaware of the potential change before it was announced in court.
Court criticism over disclosure failures
Boardman had been repeatedly criticised by the court. The governing bodies applied to have dozens of players' claims struck out over Rylands' failure to disclose medical records. Senior Master Cook, the judge presiding over case management hearings, told Boardman he had a “complete misunderstanding of his responsibilities” after repeated failures to disclose all necessary medical records to the defendants.
Rylands appealed against the judgement that they needed to disclose the material but lost the appeal, leading to further criticism from appeal judge Lord Justice Dias. He criticised Boardman for “the repeated extensions, the strong indications by the judge from early in proceedings of the need for active progression of the litigation, the gross misunderstandings about his disclosure duties and the associated puzzling nature of these fundamental misconceptions with his unconvincing explanations.” He concluded: “It was entirely reasonable in my judgment for the judge to lack confidence in the adequacy or legal accuracy of the approach to disclosure.”
According to Telegraph Sport, legal firm Leigh Day has been consulting on the case and is “currently engaging in a period of due diligence in order to decide whether they would be in a position to take over subject to clients’ agreement”.
