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The judge presiding over the two brain injury lawsuits in rugby league and union has issued an extraordinary criticism of the solicitor acting on behalf of the injured players, saying that he had been under a “misapprehension” about his responsibilities and that “he seems to have a problem with the English language”.
Senior master Jeremy Cook said that Richard Boardman, whose firm Rylands Garth is representing more than 1,000 players across both codes, had failed to disclose material to the defendants, World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union, and Rugby Football League.
Cook decided to not strike out any of the claims being brought by Rylands Garth because he believes the problems can be remedied. But he upheld the defendants’ complaints that there had been “serious and widespread failures to comply” with court orders in the ugby league case in particular.
The defendants claimed there were “significant gaps” in the medical records in 90% of the claims issued in these cases. At the high court in London, Cook ruled that the claimants, who are being backed by a commercial litigation funder, are liable for the costs incurred in the bringing of these complaints.
“These claims mean a lot to the claimants, and the difficulties here have been caused by Mr Boardman’s complete misunderstanding of his responsibilities,” Cook said. Boardman, Cook continued, seemed to be under the misapprehension that “he only had to disclose documents relied on” to the defendants, as opposed to providing them with all relevant material.
This has contributed to a delay in the case, which still has yet to come to trial. “There has been no admission, and no apology,” Cook said, “and above and before everything else a complete failure on the part of Mr Boardman to recognise that all this was caused by his misreading.”
Susan Rodway KC, of Rylands Garth, argued that the defendants had sent the claimants on “a four-month exercise in following leads down rabbit holes” in search of “some smoking gun” documents which do not exist, and that the firm lacked the resources to comply with the impossible task of providing full medical records for every one of the players involved.
“There’s been enough delay,” Cook said. “These claimants need their cases resolving and the sooner the better.”
It was revealed in the latest rugby case management hearing that of the 383 claimants who joined the action since the cut-off date this year, only 91 have received a medical diagnosis. Despite this, the legal teams on both sides will now select and agree on a group of lead claimants to go forward to trial, with further case management hearings scheduled for spring in 2026.
“Almost five years after legal action began, the claimants lawyers have today conceded in court that many players in the case have not undergone thorough medical testing but instead what the judge called a “self-serving tick box exercise” in order to sign up to this claim,” a World Rugby spokesperson said.
“They have no substantive medical diagnosis. The conduct of Rylands Garth meant the judge issued an order which could yet see many more players having their case struck out. There must now be serious doubts over whether players’ best interests are being served. This is a situation that surely benefits nobody.”
In response a Rylands Garth spokesperson said: “We will continue fighting for justice for our players and their families – who continue to suffer every day with the life-altering impacts of the negligence of rugby authorities.
“We will continue fighting for justice for our players and their families – who continue to suffer every day with the life-altering impacts of the negligence of rugby authorities.”
