Pop Warner Class Action Lawsuit Seeks Certification

Parents who have filed a class action lawsuit against Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc. are now seeking class certification for their claims that the youth football league’s insufficient use of safety equipment led to players developing brain injuries, which the league allegedly covered up.

The parents, led by lead plaintiffs Kimberly Archie and Jo Cornell, say that around 250,000 children play Pop Warner football each year in the Pop Warner Youth Tackle Football program. Allegedly, Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc. misleads parents into believing safety is the program’s top priority.

The Pop Warner class action argues that these claims are false, saying that the program uses insufficient safety measures and conceals injury. Allegedly, the helmets used by Pop Warner participants are not properly tested for use by youth.

However, the football injury class action lawsuit says that Pop Warner requires children to wear these helmets. The tackle football program class action lawsuit goes on to assert hat Pop Warner knew that the helmets are not properly designed and could increase a child’s risk of brain injury, but required participants to wear them nonetheless.

The Pop Warner Little Scholars injury cover up class action lawsuit says that the company concealed this knowledge from parents, allegedly covering up that playing in the helmets imposed additional risks than those inherent to playing tackle football.

Allegedly, Pop Warner “refused to publicly acknowledge and/or disclose what it had known for years — that repeated below to the head with inadequate equipment packed its participants at a significantly higher risk of suffering traumatic brain injuries and have lasting chronic effects on the brain.”

The Pop Warner class action notes that records dating back as far as 1928 indicate that repeated blows to the head in sports can cause “pathological changes” that can result in “long-term, permanent, life-altering and sometimes degenerative personality changes,” which Pop Warner was allegedly aware of or should have been aware of.

The Pop Warner class action goes on to note that the American Academy of Pediatrics argued that body contact sports should not be played by children under 12 because of their risk for possible brain damage, among other cautions by experts.

However, the Pop Warner class action lawsuit says that Pop Warner markets their programs to children nonetheless, and stresses that the programs focus on “the safety of the kids,” per the program’s advertisement. Allegedly, a large part of the program’s advertisement highlights that the helmets used meet NOCSAE standards.

Despite this claim, the Pop Warner football helmet class action lawsuit says that NOCSEA does not make safety standards for youth football helmets, and has not made an effort to test whether their standards are effective for youths. Allegedly, NOCSAE standards and research are both conducted with adults in mind. Allegedly, Pop Warner does not communicate this to parents.

Plaintiffs are represented by Boris Treyzon, Slav Kasreliovich, Joseph Finnerty and Michael Kelly of Abir Cohen Treason Salo LLP.

The Pop Warner Football Helmets Class Action Lawsuit is Archie, et al. v. Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc., et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-06603-PSG-PLA, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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