Richard Boardman, the lawyer who is at the centre of the concussion lawsuit against rugby’s governing bodies, has been accused of pressurising a former player into lying about his dementia diagnosis.
Boardman is the sole director of Rylands Garth, the firm who are representing a number of former rugby players in their class action litigation against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union.
Rugby World Cup winners Steve Thompson, Mark Regan and Phil Vickery are among the names involved in the lawsuit, as well as former Wales internationals Gavin Henson and Ryan Jones.
Ex-England and Wasps player Will Green is not among them despite, as the The Telegraph reported, the prop claiming he was consistently pressurised into joining.
It has also emerged that Rylands sued Green over legal and medical costs after he decided not to sign up.
The case
Boardman offered the ex-prop a brain scan after approaching him about joining the lawsuit, which he accepted having suffered from migraines for years – tests which are currently offered for free via the RFU, Premiership Rugby and Rugby Players’ Association.
Green underwent an MRI scan and neurological examination but he did not hear back from the firm for nine months. Once he did, the former Wasps and Leinster player was told that he had “signs of early-onset dementia”.
The 50-year-old asked for the neurological report but it was not forthcoming. Despite this, Rylands continued to ask him to join the class action litigation.
Green therefore went to a leading specialist for a second opinion, who told him that the tests showed no sign of a brain injury.
He believed that signing up would have “perpetrated a fraud on the court because the claimant’s medical experts’ diagnosis was found to be wrong. Yet, despite this, the claimant still tried to pursue me to sign up to the group litigation.”
Phil Vickery and Gavin Henson join lawsuit against rugby’s governing bodies
After he refused to join the lawsuit, Rylands billed him for legal and medical costs, including over £5,000 for the MRI scan and neurological tests, something which amounted to £1,600 at the specialists where he sought a second opinion on Harley Street.
The law firm duly pursued a case against Green, arguing the costs were “not unreasonable”, but it was thrown out by the judge.
Although Deputy District Judge Pickering decided that there was a contractual agreement between the two parties, the letter was described as “at very best vague, muddled and liable to be highly confusing”.
The judge added: “Mr Green’s whole basis for engaging with this firm was that he would get his medical testing done for free, so I would have been satisfied that you would not be liable on the basis of the misrepresentation.”
Meanwhile, Green, who also accuses the firm of multiple breaches of the Solicitors Regulation Authority code, told the court: “I just think they have behaved appallingly and I would go as far to say that I am not the only person involved in this.”
Rylands’ and SRA’s response
In response, Rylands told The Telegraph that its 37-page letter was “very clear” and that their tests are more “sophisticated” than those “used by the NHS”.
“We use highly sophisticated testing, which experts consider the best in the world, rather than the less sophisticated testing used by the NHS. Mr Green’s tests were undertaken by two highly experienced neuro-specialists, but he disagreed with the results and decided to leave the action,” a spokesperson said.
“We asked him to pay for some of those costs, in line with the letter of engagement. We do understand these cases are highly emotive and wish Mr Green all the best.”
Meanwhile, the SRA have confirmed that they are investigating following Green’s accusations that Rylands breached their code.
An SRA spokesperson said: “Following additional information in the court case, we can confirm that we will be looking into this before deciding on next steps.”
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