$11.5 Million Verdict Against Helmet Maker Riddell for Failing to Warn About Concussion Risk

In 2008, Rhett Ridolfi was a teenager playing football for Trinidad High School in southern Colorado. During a practice, while wearing a Riddell helmet, he took a hit and suffered a concussion. He was not taken to a hospital right away.

The consequences were permanent. Ridolfi was left with severe brain damage and paralysis on the left side of his body. By the time the case reached a jury, he was in his early twenties and living with those injuries every day.

Frank Azar & Associates represented Ridolfi and his family. The case went to trial in Las Animas County District Court in Trinidad, about 200 miles south of Denver near the New Mexico border. Several defendants were named, including coaches and school staff. Three reached confidential settlements before the verdict, and two coaches remained in the case when it went to the jury. The claim against Riddell was narrower than a typical product case: it was not that the helmet was built defectively, but that the company failed to warn the players wearing its equipment that the helmet could not prevent concussions or brain injury. The trial ran about nine and a half days.

The jury agreed with the warning theory and rejected the design claim. Jurors found Riddell negligent for failing to adequately warn Ridolfi that the helmet could not protect him from concussion related brain injury, and they specifically found that the helmet itself was not defective in its design.

In April 2013, the jury returned a total award of $11.5 million. It apportioned 27 percent of the fault to Riddell, which placed roughly $3.1 million of the award on the company, with the remaining responsibility divided among the other parties. "I think this jury has said they're in very serious trouble," Azar said of Riddell after the verdict, noting that he was also pursuing concussion claims against the company for former NFL players.

After the verdict, Azar said he would ask the trial judge to hold Riddell responsible for the full $11.5 million rather than only its apportioned share. Riddell said it was pleased the jury found its helmet was not defective and announced that it would appeal the failure to warn finding.