DPA 2025 Annual Conference

This session will address the issues surrounding alleged abusive head trauma (AHT) cases and how best to defend against the Commonwealth's AHT theory at trial. Whitney and Chelsea will discuss how the AHT diagnosis fails the Daubert standard, and the ways in which trial attorneys should be challenging the Commonwealth's child abuse experts as well as the diagnosis itself. Whitney and Chelsea will draw from two AHT cases from the trial and PC stages to demonstrate the unreliability of the AHT diagnosis and how to effectively challenge it pre-trial.