‘They didn’t deter me’: How lawyer who launched AFL class action on concussion received legal threats

Melbourne lawyer Michel Margalit says she received legal threats from a well known footy identity when news broke of the concussion class action she had launched against the AFL.

Richmond legend Shane Tuck took his own life after suffering the degenerative brain disease CTE, which is believed linked to concussions. Picture: Getty

The Melbourne lawyer who launched a landmark concussion class action against the AFL in the Supreme Court of Victoria said she received personal legal threats by a well-known football identity when details went public.

The Herald Sun revealed exclusively in February that Margalit Injury Lawyers intended to file the Supreme Court action on behalf of all professional players who suffered concussion-related

injuries through head strikes while training or playing AFL between 1985 and March 2023.

Michel Margalit, the managing principal, said at the time she had AFL and AFLW players “ready and willing to go” and later confirmed more than 100 had joined a class action to be led by dual Geelong Premiership player Max Rooke.

Ms Margalit said she then received a letter threatening personal litigation in connection with

documents related to the case, “to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars”.

She says it came as a shock, and it was without basis.

Lawyer Michel Margalit says she received threats when news of her involvement in the concussion class action broke. Picture: Mark Stewart

“If they were made to deter me from pursuing the rights of my clients,” she said, “they didn’t deter me.

“I suppose that’s the thing with a class action, there is a lot on the line for all involved.”

In mid-March a second class action referred to as the Griffins action was filed in Victoria’s Supreme Court against the AFL. There are three lead plaintiffs: Kat Tuck, the widow of the late Richmond player Shane Tuck, Adelaide Crows premiership player Darren Jarman and former Port Adelaide and Richmond forward Jay Schultz.

Shane Tuck took his life in 2020 after suffering the degenerative brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

Separate legal action was revealed when Geelong great Gary Ablett Snr, premiership Bulldog Liam Picken and ex-Tiger Ty Zantuck said they hoped to run their claims individually.

However, in June Victoria’s Supreme Court Justice John Dixon opened the door to merging them all into one mega concussion class action. The hearing is to be listed for a date after 14 October 2023.

Geelong’s Max Rooke is helped off the ground after a head knock.

Rooke is the lead plaintiff in the class action. Picture: Jason Edwards

“What we are doing now is a carriage contest,” Ms Margalit said. “The court wants to consider whether the cases are brought together as one and one firm alone be charged with the

responsibility of acting on behalf of all injured persons.

“There are other possibilities. There could be aspects where the two different firms work together, it is for the court to decide.

“It makes sense in the interest of the limited resources of the courts and to limit costs.”

An AFL spokesman said:

“At the Case Management Conference in June, one of the class actions firms asked for an extension of time to secure overseas litigation funding if their action is approved by the Court to proceed and the judge agreed to that extension while setting down a timetable for the filing of material by both firms to assist the court in determining which class action will proceed.

Geelong great Gary Ablett has spoken of his concussion hell. Picture: Getty

Ex Bulldog Liam Picken badly injured. Picture: Getty

“The AFL awaits the court’s decision on which of the class actions will proceed, noting that they have otherwise been stayed pending the Court’s determination of that matter.”

THE LONG FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

The irony wasn’t lost on Michel Margalit. It was a Friday night, she had a baby in her arms and Melbourne was in another Covid lockdown when a letter arrived from lawyers who were, at that time, representing Monash IVF.

She says the letter threatened legal action against her personally and she believes had the aim to deter her from filing a class action.

“Never before in my career had a firm been so bold as to try to deter me through personal threats from pursuing a case,” Ms Margalit said.

Lawyer Michel Margalit juggles large class action suits with caring for her two young boys. Picture: Mark Stewart

The personal injury expert and her partner Luke O’Grady were forced to do some serious soul searching, although she says they quickly came to a consensus once they got over the shock.

“It was a moment we had to pause and say, right, do we believe in our clients’ case? Do we believe in our own abilities? And as a family we had to decide we would pursue this. We were putting everything on the line.”

Ms Margalit, 41, is the managing principal of Margalit Injury Lawyers, a firm she started in 2018 and now has a team of 25.

In 2020 the new mum filed a class action in relation to the alleged negligence of Monash IVF, Repromed, Compass Fertility and related companies. It was then she received the letter.

Her firm has since registered 700 claim members in a class action alleging that the non-invasive genetic testing performed on embryos may have resulted in embryos being incorrectly classified as abnormal.

The case is listed for a judicial mediation in mid-November 2023.

“Jonathan and Harry were born as a result of our really long and hard battle with IVF,” Ms Margalit said.

“We had our own fertility struggles so Luke and I were very closely attuned to the struggles that the women and families in the Monash IVF class action would have encountered and just how hard a further hurdle in those circumstances would have been to them.”

This week as she juggled sons Jonathan, soon to turn 4, and Harry, almost 2, Ms Margalit said IVF had given her the gift of a much longed for family and Covid the opportunity to be a mother and to continue her career.

Michel Margalit was astounded when the AFL concussion issue came across her desk. Picture: Mark Stewart

“I have come to appreciate how lucky I was to have had children at the time I did because but for Covid making working from home so much more acceptable I would have been forced to choose between my children and my profession,” she said.

She says it also gave her balance.

“I am incredibly lucky to have a supportive family and the structures are all set up thanks to Covid for me to work from home and we have a wonderfully caring and capable woman as a babysitter. It was sheer luck that we stumbled across her.”

Ms Margalit talks about luck often; not as something flippant or expected, but as something to be harnessed, appreciated.

IVF also taught her she can’t always be in control.

“It was a difficult journey because as a Type A, capable, professional woman you think all I need to do is work hard at this and it will happen and suddenly you are in this very vulnerable, powerless position and all you can do is do what you are told by your doctors,” Ms Margalit said.

“I think that is what really impressed upon me the importance of the Monash (IVF) case; these women were vulnerable and all they could do was trust their doctors.”

That same empathy attracted her to the plight of injured former AFL players and to her firm launching a landmark class action in the Supreme Court of Victoria this year.

She said it also resulted in legal threats against her by a well-known football identity when details went public.

“I suppose that’s the thing with a class action,” Ms Margalit said. “There is a lot on the line for all involved.”

She says she was astounded when the AFL concussion issue came across her desk that significant action hadn’t been brought on behalf of injured AFL players at large.

“I felt that these injured players needed the right advocate,” Ms Margalit said. “And I think that me being an expert in personal injury law, but also someone quite far removed from AFL and being a mother, I could see they needed someone to care for them and someone to really recognise the harm that had been done to them and recognise that these weren’t just behaviours of a bad bloke, but symptoms of a real cognitive injury.”

That empathy, she says, comes from her parents. Her father Alex Margalit was born in Russia, in a labour camp in Siberia and grew up in an orphanage in Israel before immigrating to Australia.

Ms Margalit is the youngest of his four daughters.

Michel Margalit will not let herself be deterred from advocating for her clients. Picture: Mark Stewart

“He had an incredible work ethic where anything below 100 per cent was a fail,” she said.

“Dad passed away in his early 60s, way too young and it was tragic because he worked so hard and was a success story, but he didn’t get to enjoy his retirement.”

She said she understands why her father worked so hard.

“There is real joy in working and work is very much part of my identity,” Ms Margalit says.

“My mother Kerry’s life centres around helping others. In every spare second she also helps her grandchildren to be conscientious humans who care for others and have an appreciation of nature.

“So I grew up with that Eastern European influence of having a professional life, but also one that is of utility to society where you genuinely try to assist others.”

She describes partner Luke as incredibly supportive and not intimidated by her ambition or drive.

“We are not married, we have been trying to get married for 10 years, but we keep doing things like setting up businesses, renovating our home, having babies and investing in IVF.”

For now her focus is on family and success in two of the country’s highest profile class actions.

“A juggle? Of course, every parent would agree it is hard work, but you find balance and you wrap yourself in the arms of the people who support and encourage you.”