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Dave Farnbauch sits down with ABC's INsight to explain the basics of serving on a jury.

Dave Farnbauch sits down with INsight at the Sweeney Studios to go over incidents of injuries to our elders in our nursing homes. Host: Welcome back. We’re here in the Sweeney Studios. I’m with Dave Farnbauch from Sweeney law firm. We’re going to talk today about a report that was released recently. It was talking about the incidents of injuries to our elders in our nursing home, and it’s staggering numbers. It’s scary how many injuries there are. So let’s talk about this. What federal agency did the study on these injuries in nursing homes? Dave: So, Charity, it’s a relatively recent study that was issued by the federal government, the Office of the Inspector General. They did a four- year study and they were trying to study the incidents of injury and death in nursing homes caused by substandard nursing home care. Host: And it studied different kinds of injuries, some not as significant as others, but let’s talk about what this study said. So give me some details on the study. Dave: Well, it’s, it’s an amazing compilation of statistics about how big of a problem this is – Host: Uh-huh. Dave: -- in nursing homes. They determined that 22 percent of the patients who had a nursing home stay ended up having what they described as an adverse event and I’d like to read to our viewers what they characterize an adverse event to be. “Either a hospitalization, they were hospitalized for their injuries. They either sustained permanent injury, permanent harm, or they required intervention to save a resident’s life or they actually died as a result of substandard nursing home care.” So think about it. One in five patients who went into the nursing home during the time period that they studied, in a particular year, ended up with one of these types of adverse events. They cost approximately $2.8 billion in hospital care to take care of these residents who were injured as a result of an adverse event and, once again, it just sort of highlights that nursing homes, if you get in the wrong nursing home and don’t receive proper care, can be a very dangerous place. Host: Let’s talk about some of the take aways. These numbers are staggering. And we all worry about the care of our loved ones. What are the take aways from this study? Dave: Well, I’d say the major take aways are, what people have to keep in mind is that it’s sort of your responsibility, as a family, to do your homework and try to find the right facility. And even when you place your loved one in a nursing home facility, you have to keep your eyes and ears open to determine whether that nursing home is adequately staffed. Because there’s an old adage amongst lawyers like myself, who do nursing home neglect cases. We believe that virtually any kind of a case, any type of an injury or death in a nursing home, results, all stems from under staffing. Under staffing is the key to all these cases. So if you go to visit your loved one on the evenings, on the weekends, and they don’t appear to be, you know, adequately staffed, that, that’s a sure way to tell that there’s, your loved one is at risk for an injury. Host: And we can tell if, if our loved one’s been neglected. You can, you can sense that mom hasn’t had her hair brushed or hasn’t had water or, you know what I mean? Even those things that may not right now feel like something that’s caused an injury, but the beginnings of neglect that could then lead to. Dave: Well, I mean, if you, if you believe that when you go into a nursing home to visit your loved one that they don’t have adequate staff to meet your loved one’s needs, it’s time to look for another nursing home. Host: Yeah. Dave: And another take away from this study is, if you go to a nursing home and they want you to sign an arbitration agreement, where you sign away your legal rights to turn to the court system if they cause an injury or death to your loved one. If they want you to sign an arbitration agreement, where you agree to take a dispute you have with the nursing home through a private corporation that the arbitrator is selected by the nursing home, I would say, my advice would be, start looking for a different nursing home to put your loved one in because that’s a, that’s a pretty sure sign that that nursing home is concerned about their potential – Host: Uh-huh. Dave: -- liability and they’re trying to take measures to sort of prevent families from being able to exercise their legal right if something does happen to your loved one. Host: Absolutely. Well, we do want to make sure that our loved ones are taken care of. It’s so important. And, and we do need people to help us take care of them. So if you feel like your loved one has not gotten the care they need and it has led to an injury or some sort of problem, give the Sweeney Law Firm a call. Let them walk through the case with you and see if you have a case, if there’s something you need to do moving forward. Give them a call today or visit their website, sweeneylawfirm.com. We’ll be right back. Read the full transcript.

Attorney Dave Farnbauch sits down with INsight at the Sweeney Studios to talk about new federal regulations that make hospitals put their billing rates online. Host: Welcome back. We’re here at the Sweeney Studios with Attorney Dave Farnbauch. We’re going to talk about new federal regulations that make hospitals put their billing rates online. Dave: Right. Host: That seems like a big deal to me. Dave: Well, for many years, Charity, hospital billing rates, and we’re talking about a large list. I’ve seen some estimates, it could be 40 different thousand, 40,000 different items – Host: Uh-huh. Dave: -- that a hospital can charge for. They’ve claimed that this information about their billing rates is proprietary information or it’s a trade secret, so hospitals have been very reticent about, sort of, allowing access or disclosure of their billing rates. Host: So this federal regulation now makes them put these rates online. Dave: Right. Host: Why? Dave: Well, it’s for transparency. I think it’s going to be an effort, part of the effort to sort of drive the cost of healthcare down. In the United States, Charity, 17 percent of our gross national product is spent on health care, and the average family spends more than $9,000 a year for health care. And compared to other countries around the world, we, we spend a lot more of our, you know, disposable income on healthcare, so the politicians are trying to take measures to, you know, drive down the cost of healthcare, and one of the ideas behind this idea is giving consumers data, you know, for comparison about what different hospitals charge for different procedures and things that they do, and so consumers now have access to go online and do that research and compare apples to apples. Host: So will this drive prices down? Will this, I guess I’m thinking, when I get a bill from the insur-, or not even a bill, but when I get a statement from the insurance and it says, “Here’s what the cost was. Here’s what our discount was. Here’s what you owe.” Because we all know our insurance deductible now is, for most of us, is so high that -- Dave: Right. Host: -- most of the time we don’t meet it. Dave: The way this new law, I think, is going to impact, you know, particularly what we’re interested in, as lawyers, is hospitals tend to, with, you know, sort of having no transparency – Host: Uh-huh. Dave: -- about their rates, they tend to target people that don’t, are not covered by a health insurance plan. So there are some people that are uninsured that, obviously, are going to want to know, be able to – Host: The cash rates -- Dave: -- compare rates. And there’s also people that end up at a hospital that’s out of network – Host: Uh-huh. Dave: So they get charged with, what we call charge master rates. Those are sort of the, you know, the sticker price that the hospitals charge. They call those their charge master rates. And what we encounter in our practice is when clients of ours are injured in a motor vehicle accident, they’re frequently, will go to a hospital for treatment and these hospitals will file hospital liens where they try to recover their charge master rates, in other words, the sticker price -- Host: Uh-huh. Dave: -- of those charges, from the proceeds of a personal injury case. So what we’ve been trying to do lately, when hospitals file these hospital liens, is to get information about their billing rates, so that we can prove to a judge when we’re resisting paying these sticker price rates for hospital charges, we’ll now be able to show them on their own, you know, website or whatever, what the hospitals are charging for their services and these charge master rates are just ridiculous. So it’s a way that we can get ammunition or information that the hospital puts out to take to court to show to a judge and say, “Look, Judge, these hospital rates that they’re charging, as part of their hospital lien, are just very unreasonable.” Host: So the rates that they’re going to have to put online are not the charge master rates, they’re the actual rates that, let’s say, the insurance company puts on the -- Dave: Right. Host: -- bottom line -- Dave: No, they, no, they are their charge master rates. Host: Okay. Dave: Okay. So most, most people are covered by a health insurance plan, so the different health insurance plan negotiate a much lower – Host: Lower rate. Dave: -- much lower rate. Host: Okay. Dave: As does Medicare and Medicaid. They negotiate significantly reduced rates. So most people are not going to be sort of impacted by the charge master rates. But if you’re injured in a motor vehicle accident -- Host: That’s where it’s really going to count. Dave: -- and they file a hospital lien, you’re going to want to have access to those charge master rates, so that you can prove that those rates are unreasonable. Host: And it really is so, it gets so confusing, which is why, that’s where you come in. You know, my running joke is, “I’m not a doctor, I don’t play one on TV.” Turns out I’m not an attorney, either. And I don’t play one of those on TV, either. And so that’s where having experts like you guys at the Sweeney Law Firm is so very important because it can get really contentious because the hospital, they want their money and people don’t want to pay. It just gets contentious, and so why not let the experts be fighting for you. So if you’ve been in an accident, all you have to do is call the Sweeney Law Firm and let them help you out. They’ll be glad to look at your case and tell you if, if you need to move forward with that. Give them a call today or visit their website, sweeneylawfirm.com. We’ll be right back. Read the full transcript.

Dave Sweeney is joined by Mike Herald from Prestwick Group to talk to INsight about Settlement Funds with Structured Settlement Annuities at the Sweeney Studios. Host: Welcome back to INsight. We’re here in the Sweeney Studios. I am with Dave Farnbauch, from Sweeney Law Firm, Mike Herald from the Prestwick Group. We’re talking about settlement funds with structured settlement annuities. MR. FARNBAUCH: Correct. Host: That’s a mouthful and I need to know exactly what those are, so tell me that first. MR. FARNBAUCH: All right. Well, Charity, structured settlement annuities have been around for quite some time, and what they’re designed to do, it’s kind of a provision in the Tax Code, that allows recipients who receive personal injury settlement funds to, in essence, protect people from themselves. It gives people a special tax advantage that if they put their settlement proceeds into an annuity that is scheduled to pay out at different times, and they can set it up any way they want, then the proceeds in a structured settlement annuity are not taxed, whereas in a regular settlement, if you receive a personal injury settlement and you put it in a bank account or a CD or you invest it in the stock market and it starts earning interest, you pay tax on the interest. In a structured settlement annuity, the money is sitting in an annuity, tax free. Host: It makes sense that that would be helpful. MR. FARNBAUCH: Right. Host: So if somebody has received a settlement and they want to do this, what, how do you start that process? What’s that look like? MR. HERALD: Well, the process is started by first, we get a phone call from the defendant or the insurance company that says they’ve settled a claim. They say go ahead and contact the claimant or the plaintiff attorney, which we do. We contact that attorney and he usually sets up a meeting with his client. We sit down with the client and we go over specific needs, depending on, you know, obviously, the client’s age, the type of injury, numerous plans can be set up. For instance, if it’s a minor, you can set up a periodic payment plan, where a college fund is set up. You can defer the payments out and they would get, you know, a lump sum for a four- or five-year period for college, then you could set up a life annuity, where they’d get paid a monthly amount for the rest of their life. Depending on their age, it could be an older person that maybe doesn’t want to put money into the stock market. They’re in protection mode instead of growth mode, and we can defer it out to when they’re maybe, you know, 60, 50, 60 years old and give them a monthly payment for, you know, 20 years or so. Host: Are these common in medical malpractice cases? MR. FARNBAUCH: They are. The reason, there’s two reasons for that, Charity. First of all, we try to, with some of our clients, because we  know, the research shows that people that receive personal injury funds, settlements, they tend to blow money. That’s just a statistical fact. Just like people who win the lottery. So we try to steer some of our clients into these products to protect themselves from just spending all the money they get in a case. In, in Indiana, in our medical malpractice system, we commonly utilize structured settlement annuities because the law requires us to produce a certain amount of up-front settlement in order to access the Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund, so, frequently, when we settle a malpractice claim, we call Mike’s firm, his company, to meet with our clients to show them structured settlement annuities that will pay out money over time, so that we can access the Patient’s Compensation Fund. Host: And what’s the typical rate of return on a structured annuity? MR. HERALD: On a structured settlement, it’s going to be anywhere between three and four percent, depending on the interest rates, but it is a great protection plan, like Dave mentioned, from personal spending habits, your own spending habits, especially maybe family or friends. You’ve come into a lot of money and you’re going to have people approach you looking for that money. This is a great way to protect it. It’s guaranteed through the purchase of the annuity and it’s tax free. Host: Absolutely. And you need it to, you need to be safe. You need protection from yourself and from those around you because it is a lot of money. So if you need more information on this, if you have what you may think is a medical malpractice case, all you have to do is give Sweeney Law Firm a call today or check them out online, sweeneylawfirm.com. Download the full transcript.

Dr. Nicholas King reviews the importance of Electronic Medical Records in a Medical Malpractice case and answers common questions in an INsight interview with ABC21.

INsight Interview with David Farnbauch explaining Assisted Living Facilities. Video Transcript: Q: Welcome back to INsight.  We’re with Dave Farnbauch, from Sweeney Law Firm, and we want to talk about assisted living facilities.  These are growing in popularity.  More and more people are going into assisted living. A: Dirk, every time you turn around in Fort Wayne, they’re putting up a new assisted living facility. Q: And what does that mean, just, I mean, it’s kind of like organic or natural or whatever.  I mean, does assisted living mean something specific? A: Well, assisted living, you know, how I would define “assisted living” is elderly people that need assistance with basic activities of daily living, but it’s felt that they aren’t quite ready for a skilled long term nursing home facility. Q: But are they regulated, I guess?  Is one assisted living going to offer the same services as the second assisted living, as the third as the fourth? A: Yes, and, of course, obviously, we approach this from the safety standpoint and when you ask are assisted living facilities regulated, what’s interesting, I brought in a couple of things for the viewers to look at.  This is the, what we call the watermelon book.  This is the book of regulations, federal regulations that govern skilled nursing home care.  They say it’s the second most heavily regulated industry in the United States.  So, obviously, lots of rules and regulations that must be followed.  These are the regulations that govern what we call a rehabilitation facility, a residential rehabilitation, or residential facility in the state of Indiana.  You know, the regulations are, you know, a few pages.  So, people have to understand that when you put a resident into a facility, who has some medical needs, for example, a lot of these assisted living facilities have memory units, they have units that are designed to take care of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.  Well, those patients have a lot of medical needs and they need a lot of supervision and these regulations, while they do have some regulations in place that require certain level of staffing and sort of oversee what the staff can do, from a medical standpoint, it’s not anywhere near the level of care that you’re going to get in a nursing home. Q: So, the term “skilled nursing” means skilled nursing? A: You’re going to get round the clock skilled nursing care and a lot tighter oversight over those residents to, for their safety and to prevent accidents and to make sure that they’re safe. Q: If my loved one truly just needs assistance, is there a best way to evaluate from one facility to the other? A: Well, once again, the Indiana State Department of Health, they have score cards for these residential facilities.  There’s information you can get from the Indiana State Department of Health website as to whether they’ve been cited for violations of the Indiana State Department of Health regulations. Q: We were talking before we went on the air about the, don’t be fooled just because it’s clean and well maintained and beautiful grounds. A: Right.  Dirk, I think there’s just, there is still a stigma, families don’t want to put their loved one in a nursing home.  So, they think to themselves, okay, we’ll just put Mom or Dad in an assisted living facility.  It’s not really a nursing home.  But I think what you really have to carefully evaluate is is this the right fit for that resident’s level of acuity or their needs.  I think a lot of people get placed in an assisted living facility that really actually need to be in a nursing home and sometimes with tragic consequences that if your loved one needs a lot of care and oversight, it could be dangerous being in an assisted living facility. Q: You can learn more at Sweeneylawfirm.com.  We’ll be right back on INsight.

Insight Interview with David Farnbauch from 06/19/2017 the explaining VA Medical Malpractice. Video Transcript: Q: Welcome back to INsight and we’re here with Dave Farnbauch, from Sweeney Law Firm, and this is an interesting topic.  So, the V.A., I know they’re trying to fix it, but what happens if something goes wrong to a veteran when they’re receiving V.A. care? A: Dirk, veterans actually have the right to sue for medical malpractice.  It’s a different process than civilian medical malpractice, you know, in the regular civilian world of medical malpractice, but there is a system in place for veterans to obtain monetary compensation, if they receive substandard care. Q: Does that include receiving no care because it seems like that is also in the news, but. A: We receive a lot of inquiries at our office regarding V.A. medical care. Q: And so do I need to act quickly?  Is there a time limit?  It seems like the government would write some laws, maybe, to protect itself. A: They do.  There is, it’s much like conventional medical malpractice.  There’s a two year statute of limitations.  There is an administrative process that victims of medical malpractice sort of initiate before they get into the court system.  It’s just a very simple form.  This is called a Form 95.  It’s just a two page form that is filed with the government and then they get some time to do an investigation to decide whether they’re going to accept or deny the claim.  Most claims are denied and then once it goes through this administrative process, where the government is afforded the right to investigate the claim, and usually what will happen is the victim of medical malpractice will retain an attorney and then it goes into the federal court system, where the defendant in the case is the United States of America. Q: Does that make it more difficult on you or on the person that’s bringing this suit? A: You know, medical malpractice, once you get into the federal system are just very similar to medical malpractice claims in the state court.  You know, it’s much the same.  It’s just that you’re going to have a federal judge, you’re going to have the federal rules, but it’s very similar to medical malpractice in the state system. Q: How does somebody, if they think they’ve been wronged by the V.A., do they need to, what would be your steps?  What would be the first thing or the things you need to do? A: What we always recommend is if you have questions about whether you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice at a V.A. facility, and you have questions about what your rights are or whether you might be entitled to compensation, call a law firm that specializes in these kinds of cases.  This is a bit of a specialized area.  To the best of my knowledge, we’re the only law firm in the Fort Wayne area that really does a steady diet of V.A. medical malpractice cases. Q: Do they cap damages? A: They do.  Under the V.A. system of medical malpractice in Indiana, they go by our state cap on damages and in the state of Indiana we have a hard cap on damages of a million two fifty. Q: It’s sad to think that this could happen with the V.A.  As much as it’s in the news, as much as people seem to try to fix it, obviously, it’s really big. A: Dirk, you know, obviously, the politicians are always talking about trying to reform the V.A. system, trying to upgrade their medical care.  Personally, from what I’ve seen in our office, I’m not seeing that the, what they want to do to improve the system is really resulting in, so far, better medical care for our veterans, unfortunately. Q: All right.  If you think that this is something that you might want to pursue, if you have a loved one or could point somebody in the direction of Sweeney Law Firm, go to Sweeneylawfirm.com and learn more about taking those next steps.  We’ll be right back on INsight.

Video Transcript: Q: Welcome back to INsight.  We’re with Dave Farnbauch, here at Sweeney Law, and we want to talk about governmental oversight of nursing homes.  Is there much? A: Well, Dirk, nursing homes are licensed facilities that are licensed by the State of Indiana and the Indiana State Department of Health does employ surveyors to go out and inspect nursing homes to check for compliance with state and federal regulations, so, yes, indeed, there is state regulation or oversight of nursing homes in our state. Q: So, I guess I’m thinking, as a restaurant consumer, they’ve started in some states putting the letter grade right there in the window.  Is there an easy way for me to find out the same thing with a nursing home, like what these scores are? A: There is.  Actually, the Indiana State Department of Health has a website that you can go and look and see if there are what they call deficiencies.  They give, sort of, nursing homes a score card.  So, there is, there are resources available online with the Indiana State Department of Health to check on the performance of nursing homes, as far as compliance with state regs. Q: Are there, is it in a language that I can understand, as a layman, or are there certain deficiencies that maybe they word them certain ways, so I don’t necessarily know what’s going on? A: Yes, I mean, I think they’re fairly understandable.  So, once again, you’re looking for, you’re looking to avoid nursing homes that receive what they call F tags that are violations of the regulations. Q: Okay.  Do those nursing homes get penalized?  Do they instantly have to fix those things?  How does that system work? A: You know, what’s interesting, Dirk, is that, this is what we often tell our clients, that the penalties that are assessed by the State of Indiana, when there are non-compliance with state and federal regulations, I like to call them a slap on the wrist.  You know, if you look every year, the highest fine might be $2,500.  So, if you’re a corporation running a chain of nursing homes and you’re faced with a $2,500 fine, I don’t think there’s much incentive, from that standpoint, to comply with the regulations.  Sometimes they threaten, you know, they’ll say, well, we’re going to suspend your license if you don’t take these corrective actions, but it’s extremely rare in the state of Indiana that a nursing home’s license is actually suspended. Q: Would I contact the State if, you know, I have a loved one in a nursing home and something has happened to them?  Do families typically go that direction and expect enforcement? A: You know, it’s pretty common.  A lot of times people will come into us and they’ll want to pursue a nursing home neglect case and they’ll say, “I have contacted the State and requested that they do an investigation.”  And, once again, we tell clients that’s fine to do that.  I think that’s a good thing to do, but people have to understand, the staff that’s available, you know, through the Attorney General’s office or the Indiana State Department of Health to do complaint investigations, you know, it’s not really adequate to really police all the nursing homes in the state of Indiana that are providing substandard care to residents. Q: So, typically, then, I guess I’m asking, then, what do I do if I’m uncomfortable with something going on at, you know, at my loved one’s nursing home? A: Well, we think, and we’ve said this many times, one of the most important reasons why families can, for families to pursue a nursing home neglect case is to prevent this from happening to another family and we think that pursuing a legal case against a nursing home for substandard care is a very important deterrent to prevent things from happening to elderly in nursing homes. Q: All right.  Good information and I know your website, full of information, as well, at Sweeneylawfirm.com.  If you’d like to find out more, jump online and learn more or just give them a call.  We will be right back on INsight.

INsight Interview with David Farnbauch from 11/02/2016 explaining the misconceptions of nursing home arbitration. Video Transcript: Q: Welcome back to INsight.  We’re with Dave Farnbauch, from Sweeney Law Firm, talking about, this is an interesting topic because we’ve talked about this topic before, nursing home arbitration agreements, where I go into the nursing home and they say if anything ever happens we’re going to go into arbitration and you’re like, that sounds great. A: Yes, people don’t realize what they’re signing, Dirk.  When you go into a nursing home and you get admitted, you sign a ton of paperwork and one of the things they stick in front of your nose, that people have no idea what they’re signing, is it’s what we call in our business a forced arbitration agreement.  It’s just basically a simple agreement that says if anything happens to your loved one in the nursing home and you want to make a claim against us for injuries or death or whatever, you’re going to be presenting that case through arbitration and they’re going to select, in that contract that you sign, the forum for the arbitration and it’s probably a forum that you don’t really want to be in, if you want a fair shake. Q: So, what sounds good because, again, it seems like, oh, arbitration would be cheaper, it would be faster, it would be, you’re telling me it’s more likely I’m going into a, I don’t want to say a no win situation, but a stacked situation? A: Right.  It’s not like going into the court system, where you’re going to go into a leveling playing field.  These arbitrators that they select to serve as arbitrators in nursing home cases, there’s a reason why they’re selected to serve as arbitrators because they’re probably going to be partial to the nursing home’s position. Q: The last time we talked about this, weren’t these being discouraged or outlawed? A: Yes, I mean, this is a good example, Dirk, of elections have consequences.  Back in September of 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, that’s the entities, the governmental entities that fund nursing homes, they announced a final rule banning these pre-arbitration, forced arbitration agreements for nursing homes that receive federal funds, which is basically all nursing homes.  So, they banned these agreements.  Now, with the election, the new administration, CMS just announced that they’re going to issue a new rule sort of repealing the rule that you couldn’t use these arbitration agreements.  So, elections have consequences. Q: So, is it possible, let’s say I haven’t admitted a loved one yet into a nursing home, is it possible that I just pass on that form and just skip it? A: Well, that’s what we recommend that you do.  I mean, when people are shopping around trying to make a good decision for their loved one about which nursing home to select, certainly have your radar up to see if they’re going to present you with a forced arbitration agreement and my advice is if you want to look at a facility that wants you to sign a forced arbitration agreement, go to the next nursing home that doesn’t offer that because there’s a reason they want you to sign an arbitration agreement. Q: What if I’m already there, I already did sign this and something happens, have I really lost every right I have? A: You know, that’s an interesting question. I would say that it might be a condition to stay at the nursing home.  Say I signed this, but I’ve learned that this is maybe not necessarily a good thing for my loved one.  I don’t want to stay here unless we sign a new agreement, where that’s not part of the admission. Q: Hmm, that’s a lot to think about.  All right.  So, after, though, an injury, can I still come to see you or is — A: You can.  I mean, even if you’re in a nursing home that has a forced arbitration agreement or one that doesn’t, if your loved one is injured in a nursing home, I believe that, you know, we are the law firm in Fort Wayne that you would want to call because we’ve been doing this for a long time. Q: It’s one of those, again, who knew, but people only do this usually once or twice, where they’re putting a loved one into a nursing home and so, you know, you go in, you assume everything is going to be good.  If you’d like to find out more about what steps you can take and what to avoid, go check them out online here at Sweeneylawfirm.com.  We’ll be right back on INsight.

Part 2 Insight interview from 09/28/16 with Dave Farnbauch, a Sweeney Law Firm Lawyer, and John Henry III, CEO of JH Specialty, about the development and usability of the New Sweeney Law Firm Website.

The video discusses the possible changing of the Indiana medical malpractice cap on damages.  A bill was introduced last year that was going to raise the current cap of 1.25 million, which it has been since 1998.   So the same cap has been in place now for 17 years. The cap was going to be raised to $1,650,000 but that did not pass last year. Another bill was briefly introduced this year that has not passed but its possible that a bill does get passed this year. The Indiana Supreme Court could rule that the cap is unconstitutional and could vacate the entire cap on damages. This is what the insurance companies are most worried about, that the Supreme Court would rule against the cap and eliminate the cap. HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CAP The medical malpractice cap in Indiana started in 1975 and started out at $500,000. It then increased to $750,000 and then went to the current $1,250,000 in 1998.  Nothing has changed since then, so its time the Indiana medical malpractice cap in damages increases. Victim of Medical Malpractice Matter? If you have been a victim of a medical malpractice or medical negligence case in Indiana, call the Sweeeney law firm today for a FREE Consultation - Fill out the Case Review Form. Remember there is never a fee, unless we make a recovery for you. 1-866-793-6339 (Toll Free) 1-260-420-3137 (Local) 1-260-969-0321 (Fax)

Video from Indiana personal injury attorney Dave Farnbauch on confidentiality agreements in injury cases.   The video talks about what confidentiality agreements are and how they work in cases including personal injury and medical malpractice cases. A confidentiality agreement asks that the matter remain hush hush between the parties and that you don't disclose anything.  The details are not shared with anyone else including other lawyers and you cant publish anything in a newspaper. Insurance companies are pushing these confidentiality agreements because they dont want info out in the public about what kind of settlements they are paying out or who is causing harm. A lot of times a client will sign the agreement because its contingent on them receiving a settlement. You should always consult a lawyer before signing a confidentiality agreement. If you have been injured and need to talk with a lawyer, contact the Sweeney Law Firm today. Fort Wayne Injury attorney Dave Farnbauch of the Sweeney Law Firm can review your personal injury case for no fee.