In re: NFL Players’ Concussion Injury Litig. (RD Legal Funding LLC) — civil — partial reversal — Smith

After approval of the NFL concussion-suit settlement, some former players and family members sold their recovery rights to litigation funders in exchange for immediate payment. The district court voided these deals to protect the class members from predatory lending practices, and three of the litigation funders appealed. Today, the Third Circuit reversed in part. While commending the district court’s “very able” handling of the case, the court held that the court went too far in voiding the cash advance deals in their entirety. The court dismissed some of the appeals on timeliness grounds and another on appellate-jurisdictional grounds.

Joining Smith were Chagares and Bibas. Arguing counsel were Samuel Issacharoff of NYU Law School for the class, and (1) Michael Roth of Boies Schiller, (2) Raul Sloezen, and (3) Peter Buckley of Fox Rothschild for the litigation funders.

ADP LLC v. Rafferty — civil — partial reversal — Krause

The Third Circuit today held that, under New Jersey law, an employer’s non-compete agreements were not per se unenforeceable and remanded for the district court to determine whether their enforcement should be limited due to overbreadth. The introduction:

In this appeal, we must determine whether certain restrictive covenants, which high-performing employees enter into as a condition of a stock award, constitute an impermissible restraint on trade under New Jersey law. We conclude that these restrictive covenants are not unenforceable in their entirety because they serve a legitimate business interest, but they may place an undue hardship on employees because they are overbroad. Accordingly, we will remand for the District Court to consider whether and to what extent it is necessary to curtail the restrictive covenants’ scope, which is the approach prescribed by the New Jersey Supreme Court when confronted with overbroad restrictive covenants such as these.

Joining Krause were Hardiman and Bibas. Arguing counsel were Timothy Lowe of McDonald Hopkins for the employer and John Schmidt Jr. of Lindabury McCormick for the former employees.