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NLJ this week: Tackling abuse in football, rugby and other sport

10 March 2022
Issue: 7970 / Categories: Legal News , Sports law , Personal injury
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There has been a rise in disclosures of historic abuse in sport. Writing in this week’s NLJ, David Mayor and Alastair Gillespie, look into what can be done about this shocking issue

They cover ongoing and recent cases in rugby, football and other sports, and look at the potential for litigation. The courts are generally sympathetic to the reasons for delaying litigation, such as shame and stigma. They write that there is ‘a societal shift underpinning the way in which claimant lawyers are testing the present legal boundaries, even though the occurrence of index events is often far from current’.

Mayor, partner at Forbes Solicitors and member of FOIL’s Sports SFT, and Gillespie, partner at Horwich Farrelly and member of FOIL’s Abuse SFT, write: ‘So great has been the increase in disclosures of non-recent abuse in sport that it seems that hardly a day goes by without a dark, depressing headline, drawing the reader to yet another traumatic tale of verbal and physical assault, inappropriate sexual activity or other degrading behaviour inflicted on young people who endured abuse and humiliation because they felt they had to in order to continue pursuing their dreams.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

FOIL—Bridget Tatham

FOIL—Bridget Tatham

Forum of Insurance Lawyers elects president for 2026

Gibson Dunn—Robbie Sinclair

Gibson Dunn—Robbie Sinclair

Partner joinslabour and employment practice in London

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Real estate dispute resolution team welcomes newly qualified solicitor

NEWS
Solicitors are installing panic buttons and thumb print scanners due to ‘systemic and rising’ intimidation including death and arson threats from clients
Ministers’ decision to scrap plans for their Labour manifesto pledge of day one protection from unfair dismissal was entirely predictable, employment lawyers have said
Cryptocurrency is reshaping financial remedy cases, warns Robert Webster of Maguire Family Law in NLJ this week. Digital assets—concealable, volatile and hard to trace—are fuelling suspicions of hidden wealth, yet Form E still lacks a section for crypto-disclosure
NLJ columnist Stephen Gold surveys a flurry of procedural reforms in his latest 'Civil way' column
Paper cyber-incident plans are useless once ransomware strikes, argues Jack Morris of Epiq in NLJ this week
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