Yes, if someone else’s carelessness caused it. A concussion or other mild traumatic brain injury can support a personal injury claim in California, and an injury with that label can still disrupt work and daily life for months. Once fault is established, what decides the value of these claims is not the word “mild” in the chart. It is whether the records, the testing, and the people around you show what the injury changed.
“Mild” is a medical category, not a measure of impact
Doctors classify brain injuries by their initial severity. A concussion is usually called mild because, as the CDC puts it, these injuries are usually not life-threatening. The same CDC page adds: “Even so, the effects of a mild TBI or concussion can be serious.”
To be accurate about it, the CDC also says most people with a concussion feel better within a couple of weeks. A claim with real weight is usually one where symptoms did not resolve that way: headaches that keep coming back, trouble concentrating at work, memory lapses, irritability, sleep problems, or sensitivity to light and noise that lasts for months.
An adjuster may use the word “mild” as if it settled the value of the claim. It does not. The label describes how the injury looked at first, not what it has done to your work and your life since.
A normal CT scan does not rule out a concussion
Many people are told their head CT in the emergency room was normal and assume that means they were not hurt. That is not what the scan answers. According to the CDC, a CT scan is not needed to spot a concussion and may be used for patients at risk for bleeding on the brain. A normal CT is good news about bleeding. On its own, it does not mean there was no concussion.
The CDC makes a similar point about the thinking and memory tests providers use, often called neuropsychological or neurocognitive tests: even if the injury does not show up on those tests, a person may still have a concussion. Expect the insurer to point to normal results as proof of no injury, and be ready to explain why they are not.
How these claims are documented
Because a concussion often does not appear on imaging, the injury is documented through other evidence. The pieces that matter most:
- The first medical visit. Ideally the same day. Tell the provider about any blow to the head or hard jolt, any confusion, and any gap in memory around the event, even a brief one.
- Follow-up care. A primary care visit soon after, and a neurology referral if your doctor recommends one. Each visit should record what you are still experiencing.
- Neuropsychological testing. Formal testing of attention, memory, and processing speed can document deficits that a short office visit misses.
- A symptom journal. A short daily note of headaches, missed words, lost items, naps, and bad days. Written at the time, it is far more persuasive than a summary written months later. Keep it factual, and assume the insurer may eventually read it.
- Statements from family and coworkers. The people who saw you before and after often describe changes you do not notice in yourself: shorter temper, repeating questions, losing track of conversations.
- Work records. Missed days, reduced hours, performance reviews, and any accommodations your employer made.
Our guide to the medical records that matter in an accident claim covers the medical side in more detail, and our brain injury page covers concussions and more serious injuries.
How insurers attack concussion claims
The arguments are predictable, which means you can prepare for them:
- “There was no loss of consciousness.” The CDC describes a concussion as caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or a hit to the body that moves the head and brain quickly back and forth. Being knocked out is not part of that description.
- “The CT was normal.” As above, a CT is used to check for bleeding on the brain; it is not needed to spot a concussion.
- “There is a gap in treatment.” Insurers often read weeks without a visit as weeks without symptoms. If symptoms continue, keep your follow-up appointments and tell each provider what is still wrong.
- “The symptoms are subjective.” That is why testing, the journal, and witness statements matter.
- “It was a prior condition.” Earlier concussions, migraines, anxiety, or depression get blamed. See the section below.
- “You went back to work.” Returning to work is not the same as working the way you did before. Records showing slower output or reduced hours answer this.
What the damages can include
Civil Code section 1431.2(b) defines the two categories. Economic damages are objectively verifiable monetary losses, including medical expenses, loss of earnings, and loss of employment or business opportunities. For a concussion that affects your ability to do your job, that last item can be the largest number in the claim.
Non-economic damages are subjective, non-monetary losses, including pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental suffering, emotional distress, and loss of society and companionship. Cognitive and emotional changes after a brain injury fall squarely into this category. For more on how these are valued, see what a car accident case is worth in California.
If you had a condition before the injury
A prior concussion or a history of migraines does not end a claim. California’s civil jury instructions address this directly. Under CACI 3927, a plaintiff is not entitled to damages for a condition that existed before the defendant’s conduct, but if that condition was made worse by the defendant’s wrongful conduct, the jury must award damages that reasonably and fairly compensate for the effect on that condition.
CACI 3928 goes further: the jury must decide the full amount of damages caused by the wrongful conduct even if the plaintiff was more susceptible to injury than a normally healthy person would have been. The key is honesty with your doctors about your history, so the records show what changed.
The deadlines
Most personal injury lawsuits in California must be filed within two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If a public entity is involved, such as a fall on a city sidewalk or a crash with a public bus, a written claim is due within six months under Government Code section 911.2. If the injured person is a child, Code of Civil Procedure section 352 generally pauses the child’s own two-year period during minority, but it does not extend the six-month government claim deadline, and it is not a reason to wait.
A child who misses that six-month window has one more chance. Under Government Code sections 911.4 and 911.6, an application for leave to present a late claim, filed within one year of the injury, must be granted when the injured person was a minor for the whole six months. That one-year outer limit is firm, and the child’s age does not pause it.
What to do this week
- If symptoms are continuing, schedule a follow-up visit and ask whether a neurology referral or neuropsychological testing makes sense. If symptoms are getting worse, such as a headache that keeps getting worse and does not go away, repeated vomiting, or slurred speech, the CDC says to call 911 or get to an emergency department right away.
- Start a daily symptom journal today.
- Ask one family member and one coworker to write down, in their own words, the specific changes they have seen since the injury. Ask them to stick to what they actually saw, because the other side may eventually read it.
- Request copies of your emergency room records, including the CT report.
- Check whether a public entity was involved, and if so, mark six months from the date of injury.
About the author. Joshua B. Adelpour is the founder of Not My Fault Law Group, APC, a California personal injury firm based in Woodland Hills. He is licensed by the State Bar of California, Bar No. 318226, and spent nearly a decade defending insurance companies in civil litigation before opening the firm. Call (213) 800-0706 for a free consultation.
This article is general information about California law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Every case depends on its own facts. Last updated October 6, 2026.