High Schools Athletes at Risk for Concussions

Personal injury lawsuits are some of the most common torts filed in the United States. Annually, civil lawsuits cost about $233 billion in the U.S., making for an expensive case for all parties involved. These personal injury cases are usually argued by accident attorneys or personal injury lawyers, who are well-versed in tort law.

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Their expertise has been especially critical for scores of high school athletes in recent years. A new study shows that between 2005 and 2012, the rate of concussions in American high school athletes has more than doubled. This has also led to a higher number of filed insurance claims.

Recently published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, the study examined the rising trend of concussions and how this will impact legislation over these injuries.

Dr. Joseph Rosenthal, the study's lead researcher and assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Ohio State University, explained that the study was solely observational, and that the reason for the spike in these injuries is unclear.

For an athlete participating in a practice or game, each game or practice in the study was called an athletic exposure. The study revealed that for every 1,000 athletic exposures in 100 high school athletes, the rate of concussion increased from .23 to .51. Among the leading sports that produced these injuries were girls' softball, football, boys' baseball, boys' wrestling, and boys' basketball. Football stood out as the sport with the most concussion-related injuries.


These numbers are not limited to high school football, either. The National Football League has seen a number of personal injury lawsuits relating to concussions in the last few years. And in 2013, the league agreed on a settlement of $914 million for several former NFL players.

But the injuries alone are not the reason why these concussion claims are on the rise, according to Steven Broglio, an athletic trainer from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He explains that increased media coverage of concussions have contributed to the boom in diagnoses, because more people are aware of the dangers of concussions.

This is corroborated by attorney Robin Dusek, who asserts that insurance claims are ballooning because more families understand the symptoms and risks associated with concussions. Dusek also adds that litigation is part of today's culture, which could be fueling the number of claims.

The risks of sports like football have hardly diminished, even with the increased press on concussion-related personal injury lawsuits and some of the protective changes to football's tackle rules. But Dusek does foresee a major impact: the number of children who participate in these sports may decrease as a result of the heightened awareness.