The evolution of traumatic brain injury litigation has been rapid. A decade ago, I wrote that we were on the cusp of a new era brought on by the increase in public awareness of the potentially devastating long-term consequences of head injuries once thought to be “mild.” This increase in public awareness was due to several factors. For example, the U.S. military recognized mild TBI from concussive-force blast injuries as the “signature injury” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, there was an increased focus on “concussion management” in sports, culminating in the NFL’s nearly $1 billion dollar class action settlement in 2013 covering brain damage among retired players. Finally, technological advances in neuroimaging increasingly can detect microscopic brain damage—allowing jurors to see injuries that were once invisible.

At CLE presentations, I talked with excitement about how diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and other advanced imaging technologies would affect these cases and improve claimants’ outcomes. That future is now.