If the NATA lawsuit was wholly without merit, why did APTA agree to settle instead of litigating all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary?
If the only choice had been to enter into a dishonorable settlement agreement, then APTA would have continued to fight the lawsuit, regardless of the cost. However, it is important to note that nothing has changed as a result of this agreement. There are no winners here. The settlement acknowledges a few indisputable truths concerning what physical therapists and athletic trainers do. APTA will continue as before to advocate on behalf of the profession and those it serves. Litigating any lawsuit, even one that is meritless, has many costs. The legal expenses are only the most obvious. Defending this lawsuit would have taken up very significant amounts of APTA staff time. The burden would not have been limited to just the legal department, since staff members in many other areas (including practice and education, professional development, government and payment advocacy, federal government affairs, and state government affairs) could have been torn away from their APTA work. Far too man
