NFL Player’s Estate Can’t Cut Attorney Fees in Concussion Suit

The estate of deceased NFL player Kevin Turner can’t further reduce the fees owing counsel who represented him in concussion litigation against the league, after the Third Circuit Wednesday affirmed a ruling slashing the contingent fees by one-third.

Turner, a running back for the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2016—an illness he attributed to repeated concussions.

Though the original retainer agreement contained a contingent fee of 40%, the trial court overseeing the concussion litigation later capped the amount recoverable by individually-retained attorneys, as opposed to class counsel, at 22%. The trial court ...