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 | Posted on Fri Oct 28 2011 8:50am
MINNEAPOLIS -- A request by NFL players to keep the league and its teams from locking them out will be heard by a federal judge on April 6 -- the first time the two sides will be in a courtroom since the labour pact fell apart. Eagles Nnamdi Asomugha Jersey. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson scheduled the hearing. The players filed their request last week, hours before the lockout took effect Saturday, along with an antitrust lawsuit will hundreds of millions of dollars at stake if it goes forward. The case first went to Judge Richard Kyle, who recused himself for unspecified reasons. It was re-assigned to Judge Patrick Schiltz, who stepped aside citing a conflict of interest because he represented the NFL in several cases as a private practice lawyer. The case may still be reassigned, even after the injunction request is settled. Deb Bell, interim division manager in the court clerks office in Minneapolis, said cases are randomly assigned by computer. The players want the case before U.S. District Judge David Doty, who has overseen NFL labour matters since the early 1990s and issued a number of rulings against the league. Former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Tom Heffelfinger said there is a way for the case to still wind up in front of Doty. "If either the court or one of the parties designates the case as a related case to one that has been previously assigned to another judge, it could get reassig |