Hi Anthony,
Thank you for your feedback.
This spec is intended as a DC specification, meaning sustained voltages of greater than 1 V on the SENSE pins will damage the device. The footnote is to specify for transients. These devices will not have an issue with spikes often observed in normal motor control applications where the abs max current spec is not being exceeded.
We don't specify any type of filtering / TVS clamp circuits on these pins because for most applications this would be unneeded and cause unwanted delay in the OCP / current chopping circuits inside of our device, meaning we would not accurately regulate current.