Published October 16, 2026 09:57 AM
The question of whether former NFL defensive back Shilo Sanders will be able to avoid an $11.89 million civil judgment under the bankruptcy laws likely won’t be resolved until after the calendar turns to 2027.
Via Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today, the granting of a request by Sanders’s lawyers to delay the deadline for submitting post-trial briefs pushed the expected resolution of the case into January, at the earliest.
Previously, the final written arguments from the lawyers were due to be submitted on or before November 16. The deadline is now December 21.
Once the written arguments are submitted, the judge will need to review the arguments and craft a written decision.
The request to delay the submission deadline came from the fact that the generation of the transcript of a trial that ran from August 31 through September 4 took longer than expected.
The case regarding whether the judgment previously awarded to John Darjean will, or won’t, be discharged through the bankruptcy laws was a bench trial, with the judge (not a jury) resolving the key factual questions.
The overriding issue in the case is whether the injuries inflicted on Darjean by Sanders during a 2015 incident at Sanders’s school were “willful or malicious.” If not, the debt can be discharged. If so, he’ll continue to owe Darjean the money.