Judge gives final oral approval to video games settlement

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken on Thursday orally granted final approval to a $60 million combined settlement of a series of lawsuits relating to the use of college football and men's college basketball players' names, images and likenesses in NCAA-branded video games, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys told Paste BN Sports.

Speaking after a hearing Wilken held in California, Steve Berman said the judge also agreed to extend the deadline for affected athletes to file a claim through July 31. Berman also said Wilken told the attorneys involved in the case that she might be inclined to reduce the costs and fees that they will be awarded to 30% of the settlement rather than 33%. That would increase the amount of money available to affected athletes.

Currently, Berman said, it is estimated that athletes who had the maximum amount of exposure in the games over the longest period of time could receive around $7,200 from the settlement.

The original claims deadline had been July 2. According to documents filed by the plaintiffs late that night, nearly 16,200 claims had been made.

Supplemental filings by the plaintiffs late Wednesday night said that, ultimately, more than 20,200 claims met the July 2 deadline, including those made online and those that had been post-marked by July 2 but received by the claims administrator after that date. A document from claims administrator Kenneth Jue said after discussions with the plaintiffs’ lawyers, the online claims form was kept active after July 2 and that more than 200 additional claims had been received online as of Tuesday.

“It’s a landmark day,” Berman said. “It’s the first time student-athletes will get paid for use of their name, image and likeness — and we’re anxious to get the settlement funds to the students.”

Once Wilken finalizes her approval of the settlement, objectors will have 30 days to appeal. If no appeals are made, money could then start being distributed to athletes with validated claims.

Berman said he is hoping there won’t be objections, “so we can start the payment process,” which he said could begin as early as September.

Although there is an ongoing fight among the plaintiffs’ lawyers about how much various firms should receive in fees and costs, Berman said he believes Wilken can determine an overall amount that will go to the firms, which would set the payment pool and not result in payments to the athletes being delayed by a dispute among the lawyers.

The settlements relate to claims against the NCAA, video game manufacturer Electronic Arts and Collegiate Licensing Company, the nation's leading collegiate trademark licensing and marketing firm.

They apply to athletes who were on the roster of a team included in a game that was published or distributed from May 2003 through September 2014. Athletes still playing college sports are allowed receive money from the settlements without affecting their NCAA eligibility. According to a prior filing from one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Leonard Aragon, the group of potential claimants “goes back to the 1930s (because of historic video games) and the majority … attended school between 2002 and 2012.”

Athletes are eligible to receive money from either or both settlements.

In addition to Wilken’s decision on the fees-and-costs award to the attorneys, payments to the athletes will be based on factors including:

—The validated claims rates.

—Whether a player's name appeared on a team roster.

—Whether his assigned jersey number appeared on a virtual avatar.

—Whether his photograph appeared in the game.

—Which years he appeared in a game as an avatar and/or had his photograph used in the game.

—The number of years in which a player was on a roster, appeared in the game as an avatar and/or had their photograph used in the game.