Judge orders "good faith" settlement talks today

NFL is on 4th & 28. Better hope Fredex makes the catch for a first down.

patsfan13 said:

Berman has already tipped his hand.

How?

He released the transcript that the NFL wanted hidden. The NFL and Goodell have been ripped nationally for their behavior. Berman understood how the appeal reanscript made the NFL looked, and exposed what a pos the Goodell 20 page ruling is.

He is putting the gun to the NFL's head.

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Based on Brady's reps count in camp (taking the majority of) I was thinking the same, that judge Berman might have already tipped off his tendency and Brady's team is very confident. Then I thought "how?", because he didn't meet with both parts yet, anyway, there must be subtle things that experienced lawyers like Kessler get in the air.

It is SOP.

They ALWAYS direct the parties to engage in "good faith settlement discussions" before the initial conference. It's standard language in the Judge's individual rules. They constantly drone directives of engaging in "good faith settlement discussions" until it actually happens.

I'm hoping that Goodell grandstanding in the press and his "f*ck sttlement" posturing is:

(a) going to royally p*ss off the judge; and/or

(b) a sign that Goodell already knows he's is going to lose and is just playing for the cameras.

Mack Herron said:

He could and this would be the best case scenario because it would throw the entire process including the investigation, Brady's guilt or innocence and the Patriots guilt or innocence before a non-NFL arbitrator for thoughtful consideration.

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No, it wouldn't. This is all about Brady and only Brady. The whole point of this case is to decide whether or not to uphold the decision of Goodell-as-arbitrator in Brady's internal NFL appeal.

If settlement fails and Berman orders re-arb, then the decision of Goodell-as-arbitrator will be ripped up and the new arbitrator will step into Goodell's shoes at the point in the process that Goodell acted as abitrator. In other words, it would be June 23rd all over again but with someone other than Goodell hearing Brady's appeal. That also means that the arbitrator will not have arbitrary powers. He will have to act persuant to the CBA. Any re-arb is going to be within the context of the CBA and be governed by the CBA arbitration rules -- if the judge orders re-arb he's basically saying "Goodell was too biased/unfair/whatever. So Brady gets a do-over with someone else."

All Brady has to say is, accepting any settlement is an admission of guilt. Your honour, I am not guilty of anything so why should I accept any punishment for crimes I did not commit.

Froob said:

NFL is on 4th & 28. Better hope Fredex makes the catch for a first down.

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FredEx couldn't catch a cold.

I did ask Stradley if the new arbitrator was limited to considering process or would be able to de novo assess Brady/NFL/Goodell/Wells credibility. She said a new arb would be able to assess credibility himself.

AndyJohnson said:

People keep saying this.
The judge did not ORDER anyone to give in anything.
The judge RECOMMENDED they try to negotiate.
While I recognize you may be using the terms interchangeably there is no ORDER FROM THE COURT being violated by either side saying they feel they are 100% in the right and will not accept less than what they want.

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The judge ordered them into good faith settlement talks. ****dell went on record saying he isn't budging at all. So it is already established that the nfl is going into the settlement with no good faith.

QuantumMechanic said:

No, it wouldn't. This is all about Brady and only Brady. The whole point of this case is to decide whether or not to uphold the decision of Goodell-as-arbitrator in Brady's internal NFL appeal.

If settlement fails and Berman orders re-arb, then the decision of Goodell-as-arbitrator will be ripped up and the new arbitrator will step into Goodell's shoes at the point in the process that Goodell acted as abitrator. In other words, it would be June 23rd all over again but with someone other than Goodell hearing Brady's appeal. That also means that the arbitrator will not have arbitrary powers. He will have to act persuant to the CBA. Any re-arb is going to be within the context of the CBA and be governed by the CBA arbitration rules -- if the judge orders re-arb he's basically saying "Goodell was too biased/unfair/whatever. So Brady gets a do-over with someone else."

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The probative value of the Wells report as the basis for Brady's suspension would be in play. For example, the arbitrator could find that the Wells report did not demonstrate any deflation occurred. While formally serving as a basis to vacate Brady's suspension, such a finding would undercut the entire basis of the case. Goodell would have painted himself into a corner with enormous pressure on the owners to find a resolution.

SalemPats said:

It's still crazy that this case is taking 6 months and is not resolved. This shows how incompetent the NFL and Roger have done handling this case. This is a witchhunt

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Given your username, I'll gladly defer to your judgement on the matter.

patsfan13 said:

Berman has already tipped his hand.

How?

He released the transcript that the NFL wanted hidden. The NFL and Goodell have been ripped nationally for their behavior. Berman understood how the appeal reanscript made the NFL looked, and exposed what a pos the Goodell 20 page ruling is.

He is putting the gun to the NFL's head.

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Great point. I would be interested to hear from some of our member attorneys if the agree with your logic.

Tuck said:

Great point. I would be interested to hear from some of our member attorneys if the agree with your logic.

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I'm a Plaintiff's trial lawyer and I would pump the brakes on reading too much into anything the judge has said or written at this point.

JMC00 said:

The judge ordered them into good faith settlement talks. ****dell went on record saying he isn't budging at all. So it is already established that the nfl is going into the settlement with no good faith.

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That is not a court order.
If Brady says "I'm innocent and will not accept any penalty" is he in contempt of court?

There isn't room to negotiate between "You did it" and "I didn't"

QuantumMechanic said:

I did ask Stradley if the new arbitrator was limited to considering process or would be able to de novo assess Brady/NFL/Goodell/Wells credibility. She said a new arb would be able to assess credibility himself.

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The new arbitrator takes it back to before the appeal, and Brady is back appealing the validity of the findings of guilt and the punishment.
This court case is about the appeal only. They are diametrically different.

It would be nice if the judge said, "since you guys seem to want to fight this out in public, I'm going to order the release of all documents and notes used in the preparation of the Wells report". One side (presumably the NFL) won't want that -- especially if they lied in the report.

AndyJohnson said:

That is not a court order.
If Brady says "I'm innocent and will not accept any penalty" is he in contempt of court?

There isn't room to negotiate between "You did it" and "I didn't"

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And I think Judge Berman is fully aware of this.

The whole "settle" thing is pretty standard fare. He has to do it.

voluntarysaftey said:

The problem with offering a $50,000 fine is it sets a precedent that all future players will have to turn over their phones -- and its inconsistent with Gostkowski's lack of fine for the same offense.

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That's why I want Brady to do the defamation suit so much. It will be worth it just so have some mediot report that Brady has subpoenaed Roger Goodell's cell phone (as well as Giardi's, Kensils, and the entire Colts front office.) To read about THEIR responses would almost make this entire nightmare worthwhile.

Tuck said:

Great point. I would be interested to hear from some of our member attorneys if the agree with your logic.

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That may be a positive sign for Brady/NFLPA but it's hard to objectively assess because I'm too emotionally invested to be objective.

If I recall correctly, NFLPA already did try to negotiate while the appeal was still pending. It sounds like they already are trying negotiate in good faith.

If that true, they can tell the judge, "look if it's just a money thing we'll pay a reasonable amount just to end this but their case is garbage, their procedure was an abomination, and we maintain innocence so we can't accept any suspension or agree to anything that can be construed as an explicit or implicit admission of guilt." That sounds like a good faith negotiation to me.

The NFL's position seems to be, "we've got nothing but article 46 let's us do what we want. We just need an (almost certainly) innocent person to somehow admit guilt and be publicly pilloried so we can save face." This is not good faith negotiation and I cannot imagine any fair or sane judge (although this is NY we're talking about) being impressed by this.

Felger and Mazz pretending like they're lawyers today is the absolute height of entertainment.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

The NFL's position seems to be, "we've got nothing but article 46 let's us do what we want. We just need an (almost certainly) innocent person to somehow admit guilt and be publicly pilloried so we can save face." This is not good faith negotiation and I cannot imagine any fair or sane judge (although this is NY we're talking about) being impressed by this.

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The thing that the entire BSM, and pretty much everyone is overlooking on that, is that the courts have already ruled on the infallibility on Article 46, a couple of times. Not in the NFL's favor, I might add.

Even though it was in a couple of different courts, that stuff matters.