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Fort Wayne, Indiana lawyer Dave Farnbauch talks about attorneys fees and what contingency fees are.   For many cases, there are no fees paid unless you are successful in your legal matter.  Usually medical malpractice and personal injury cases are handled in this matter. So its always best to contact a lawyer with questions about the attorney fees. Usually one third of the recovery or 33% are the normal contingency fees in most cases.  This means you would only pay attorney fees IF You are successful in your legal case. The Sweeney Law Firm is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana and is devoted to the representation of personal injury victims including medical malpractice and nursing home negligence. The Sweeney Law Firm offers free consultations. You will never pay any attorney fees or case expenses unless we obtain a financial recovery in your legal case. 1-866-793-6339 (Toll Free) 1-260-420-3137 (Local)

Host 1: Welcome back to InSight with Dave Farnbaugh who has been kind enough to join us again. We are talking about nursing home care and it's such an important topic. President Obama was reelected yesterday and that obviously will raise some issues because that's going to mean that Obama Care is not being repealed. So what does that mean for nursing home care? Dave Farnbaugh: Well, it's a practical matter, I think what it's going to mean is that most people are saying that when it is really fully phased in - the reimbursements to nursing homes and other providers is going to be scaled back. As a practical matter, if reimbursements are going to be scaled back, in my mind, what that's going to result in is probably nursing homes trying to accomplish their staffing needs with fewer people. There is sort of an old adage in our business that no matter what type of an injury occurs in a nursing home, whether that be pressure sores, falls, dehydration, or whatever harm occurs in a nursing home - usually relates from under-staffing. If you had adequate staff to take care of the residents based on their needs and their what we call acuity then most injuries in nursing homes wouldn't occur. But if you don't have enough staff, people have a lot of needs and you don't have enough people to cover the various wings and halls in a nursing home. That's where most of the injuries occur. Host 2: Is that what you're seeing? As the Sweeney Law Firm is handling all these cases against nursing homes, is that the trend you see is that it's under-staffing? Dave Farnbaugh: I think that's a big part of it. It's under-staffing. One of the ways you can reduce your overhead cost if you own a nursing home is reduce staff. The other thing that we see is unfortunately less resources and time to train people. The people that are employed to work in nursing homes are going into it, caring and compassionate people, that's why they're in a nursing home. Everybody's motivation is good who runs a nursing home. Nobody wants to see somebody get hurt in a nursing home, but these are people that have a lot of needs and these people that work there, nurse's aids and nurses, they require a lot of training for the specific needs of the elderly. So we see often times when we sue nursing homes that the training is inadequate and that results to injuries. That's one of the trends we're seeing. One of the more disturbing trends that we're seeing nowadays in cases against nursing homes is the notion now that some nursing homes are not carrying liability insurance. It's hard to believe. In Indiana, if you drive a car, you have to have insurance. In the state of Indiana, it's pretty remarkable, if you own a nursing home, you don't have to carry liability insurance. I tell people that and they're stunned. Another trend that we're seeing is a lot of nursing homes are asking families when they're doing their admission paper work to sign an agreement that says you're going to give up your right to make a legal claim against a nursing home. It's called forced arbitration, where you agree that if you have some sort of dispute with a nursing home or someone's injured in connection with nursing home care, you have to sign an arbitration agreement that calls for your case to be decided by someone that's an arbitrary for the nursing home industry. That's not exactly the fairest way to handle a dispute. Those are some of the things we see. What we've done at our office is put a lot of information on our website. If you go to our website, you're going to find a section on nursing homes that contains a lot of helpful information for consumers about what to look for in placing their loved one in a nursing home, what are some of the things to look for, questions to ask, and those sorts of things. We really think that we've really developed a fountain of information for all things related to nursing home and nursing home care. Host 2: Well that's a great place for people to go, we're all in some situation where we need to be aware or know what we would do if we need a nursing home for ourselves or a loved one. Check that out at SweeneyLawFirm.com. If you think that you may have a case of need advice, you can give them a call at 420-3137

Host 1: Welcome back to InSight, we are joined now by Dave Farnbaugh from the Sweeney Law Firm. So Dave, there are some medical malpractice laws that are unique to Indiana and there have been a number of news stories lately regarding medical errors and medical malpractice. Tell us about those. Dave: Well, we've seen a lot of news stories lately that medical malpractice was at the forefront. There was a big news story a few weeks back about a local pain physician who the attorney general is pursuing and there's been the epidemic in Massachusetts with the fungal meningitis. So there has been a lot of news on the topic of medical malpractice and what I thought we'd do today is spend a little bit of time explaining to people maybe some of the laws that govern medical malpractice here in the state of Indiana that are surprising when they talk to people that are unique to Indiana. Most people don't realize that in the state of Indiana we have a cap on medical malpractice damages. Host 2: So you can only sue for so much. Dave: Right, it's $1,250,000 and that's shocking when I tell a lot of people, since we handle birth injury cases where a little baby during the delivery can be harmed and require a lifetime of medical treatment. That could realistically cost tens of millions of dollars. In Indiana we have a hard cap of $1,250,000 so it doesn't matter how much harm is cause, you're capped out at a $1,250,000. When I tell people that they're completely shocked. How could that be that there could be this ceiling on the amount of damages in respective to the amount of harm? Host 2: Is there anything that somebody could do about that if they are in that sort of situation? Dave: No, in fact there was a recent case where attorneys tried to challenge the cap and the Indiana Supreme Court, this was primarily on procedural grounds, just ruled that the cap is gonna stay in place. So its been a law since 1976 we've had a cap on damages. We've adjusted it for different time frames, but the current cap is $1,250,000 which with today's medical cost is woefully inadequate. The other interesting thing that's unique about Indiana Medical Malpractice Law is the notion that we have a medical review panel that decides on the merits of cases before you can file a lawsuit. It's the only area of law that I'm aware of in Indiana where you're sort of judged by your peers. When you file a medical malpractice lawsuit in the state of Indiana, if you sue physicians, a panel of three physicians is convened to decide whether the case has merits. That's unique. If you sue a lawyer, there's not a panel of three lawyers or an architect. But if you sue a physician in the state of Indiana there's a medical review panel that's formed to decide the merits of your case. Host 2: One, I would think, just in theory that that's a little harder to get past because their obviously cognisant of the fact that these are their peers in their industry. So I would think that it’s almost like you gotta go two steps and that first step I would think is challenging. Dave: Well it is challenging because it’s a situation where a lot of times physicians know one another and they attend the same seminars and what not. So it is difficult. I think cases that tend to fall in the grey area of medical malpractice, I think a lot of times physicians do get the benefit of the doubt with their peers on the medical review panel. Which makes it a lot more challenging for patients and consumers to try to get justice if there’s a medical malpractice case. So we have some very unique and challenging laws that present some hurdles to patients when they are the victims of medical malpractice in the state of Indiana. Host 2: Well obviously you’re the expert on that and it is very hard to digest all of the rules and what you need to do so if somebody thinks they have a medical malpractice suit the best thing to do is contact you guys. Because you guys definitely tell them whether or not they should proceed. Dave: Ya, oftentimes we get a lot of calls and we explain to people, “Look, we’re sorry for what happened to you but it appears there’s no malpractice. Occasionally we do get calls where the cases are meritorious. So the only way you’re ever going to find out if you have a meritorious medical malpractice is to call an attorney who specializes in that area. Host 2: Well if you have a question about medical malpractice, give the guys at Sweeney Law Firm a call - they can help you out today.

Host: Welcome back to INSight. We are joined now by Dave Farnbaugh from the Sweeney Law Firm and we're talking about something that’s really important to a lot of people my age, choosing a nursing home for our loved ones. People my age as our parents get to their older years their care is falling on us and as much as we would love to keep them at home with us, there comes a point where it’s just not possible. It’s just not physically possible. It’s not safe for any of us; for them or for us. What are some of the things that we should do when we’re choosing a nursing home for a loved one and how can an attorney help us in that choice. Dave: Our viewers might be wondering, “what does a personal injury lawyer have to say?” or, “what insights do I have about choosing a nursing home for a loved one?” because I’m an attorney. For many many years, one of my main focuses of my practice has been representation of families who have a loved one that’s been injured in a nursing home. Over the years of doing these kinds of cases, you learn a lot about nursing homes, nursing home care, and obviously we encounter lots of families that have some second thoughts or they’re second guessing themselves about why they selected a particular nursing home to place a loved one. What I’ve tried to do for the last few years is try to provide information to the families and consumers. People that call our law firm about nursing home cases and try to give them the benefits of our insights and about the things we’ve learned from handling these types of cases. There are a lot of things we’ve learned. I think one of the most important things that you have to do when you make a decision on a particular nursing home is, like any thing else, you have to do some research. You have to do some homework. There are some tools available for people to make better decisions about how to select a nursing home. Host: Now in the sea of information that there most certainly is on the internet, what are some specific questions that people should be asking or points they should be seeking out before they choose a nursing home? Dave: Well you’re right Emily, there are some really great resources that are available on the internet now. I think probably the best source is a medicare dot gov website called nursing home compare. If you go in a particular geographic area within a zip code or city, it’ll tell you what nursing homes are available in that area, what types of care they provide, and it also gives you a rating. Every year, or sometimes more than once in a year, all the nursing homes under go what they call “state surveys”; where state surveyors or inspectors go into nursing homes and they basically do inspections and they have certain criteria to rank the quality of care that are provided by nursing homes. The information that is compiled by a state surveyor is listed in the nursing home compare website. You can go to the site and compare apples to apples. How did this nursing home rate in the number of residents who were injured? Or, (how do they rate) in “F Tags” when they receive a citation from a state surveyor? You can compare how many citations one nursing home receives versus another. Host: So maybe one of those “F Tags” are a red flag that we should look for when you’re comparing. Are there any other red flags or things you should look for when you’re looking at these comparisons? Dave: Well there are. One of their loved ones is being release from the hospital, a hospital might say, “We suggest that you go to this facility” People just go with that recommendation instead of doing their homework. I think what you need to do before you say “yes” to a particular nursing home is go visit that facility. Talk to the people that are there. Talk to other people that are coming to visit their loved one in the nursing home. How do they feel about the nursing home care? There’s no substitute, in my opinion, having a nursing home that is located in fairly close proximity to where the family members are located. There’s an old adage in the nursing home business, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” If your family members in a nursing home and you’re visiting that loved one and you are letting the staff know that you are going to be visiting and you’re interested in the care that your loved one receives. You’re going to get a lot better care in a nursing home than somebody who doesn’t receive regular visitors and that’s critically important. Host: Now among some of the different options that you have when choosing a nursing home, you have for profit and not for profit nursing homes so that’s another thing to consider when you’re doing your research. Dave: Right. They have done studies on what is the source of problems in nursing homes? Well the number one problem in nursing homes is the reason people receive inadequate care or are injured in nursing homes, is under staffing. In nursing homes that are not properly staffed you will find substandard care. In for profit nursing homes, (staffing) is one of the big areas of overhead. The home will look at “How do we increase the profits?” One of the ways they do that is by reducing the staff that are working there. One of the criteria that people should look at when selecting a nursing home is that a for profit nursing home is part of a larger nursing home chain or corporation. They’ve done some studies that show people that are in for profit nursing homes, particularly larger chains, are more likely to receive improper care. Host: If somebody finds themselves in a situation where there was maybe some inadequate care or there is a need for some legal advice – you guys do have some consumer advice that you have for people in choosing a nursing home and some legal advice you can offer them a brochure that they can get from you. Dave: We offer consumers a free report on how to select a nursing home. It contains a lot of useful information, tips on some of the questions to ask when you go to the nursing homes, some of the sites you should visit, all kinds of information on how to make a proper choice when selecting a nursing home. Our website also contains a lot of information, if you or a loved one are the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, then we have some information on what you can do to exercise your legal rights. Host: So if you want that brochure or you feel you have been the victim of abuse or neglect or someone in your family has, please visit the Sweeney Law Firm website today. It’s SweeneyLawFirm.com or give them a call. Thanks to Dave Farnbaugh for visiting with us today.

Host 1: Welcome back to InSight. We are joined now by Dave Farnbaugh with the Sweeney Law Firm and we're going to talk today about nursing homes.This is something that lots of generations are dealing with today because whether you are getting ready to make that transition into a nursing home or you are moving your parents into a nursing home, we're all sort of dealing with it and we want to be sure that we're making the right choices. So, luckily we have the support of the Sweeney Law Firm and what are some of the questions that we should be asking when we call an attorney? Because really, we probably should be calling an attorney when we're making some of those choices. Dave Farnbaugh: Well I don't know Emily that you would necesarily call an attorny before you would place your loved one in a nursing home. Maybe I can give the views some background on why this is a topic of some interest to me and our law firm. We've been handling nursing home cases, where we file cases against nursing homes, for the last 15 or 20 years and so during that period of time, you learn a lot about why people have to go into nursing homes. You learn a lot about the care that they receive and most notibly these lawsuits are brought because of safety issues that arise in lawsuits. It's sort of an unfortunate reality that many many people that end up in a nursing home wind up with injuries or even death for that matter. This is something that has really became a particualr insterest with our law firm. We pursue a number of these cases. We do these cases all over the state so what we like to do when we have forms like this is to share information that we've learned or acquired over the years about how to prevent injuries to try to make a difference that way. What happens most frequently with nursing homes is someone is in a hospital, they have a serious medical condition that requires rehabilitation or a loved one needs skilled nursing care. They've developed alzheimers, dementia, or some other condition that requires skilled nursing care and suddenly a family is confronted with a decision. Where are we going to place Mom or Dad or a spouse for nursing care? Often times, we don't give a lot of thought to that ahead of time. A lot of times, you're at a hospital and the doctor comes in and says, "Look, we're going to release you tomorrow. We're going to be releasing you to a nursing home care." People really haven't given a lot of thought to where we are going to place Mom or Dad or a spouse. So, I guess the idea is that there is a lot of resources out there that are available now-a-days for people looking to do their homework and do research on what's the best placement. And of coarse we feel, based upon our experience having to sue nursing homes and seeing some of the things that can happen from a safety stand point, that it's important for consumers out there to research some of the problems or safety issues in nursing homes. Probably the best resource that's out there is a website called medicare.gov or a lot of people can reach it by googleing "nursing home compare". And when you go on the website for "nursing home compare", you find that you can actually access information online with the various state departments of health (the Indiana State Department of Health). You can actually go online an research what they call "citations" or "f tags" where nursing homes have been cited by the Indiana department of health or a resident developed pressure sores or falls. There's statistics on there. There's plans of correction those sorts of things. You can actually do homework on nursing homes before you have to place your loved one. Indiana has an obvincemen program where those nursing home obvincemen, which are employed by the state. That office is there to help families with issues that arise from nursing home care. What we recommend to families is call the local obvincemen and ask them questions about which facilities have you had problems with? What recommendations would you make when we place our loved one in a nursing home? So there's lots of resources that are available. Also, just check around with people before you place a loved one. What experiences have other families that you know have had in a nursing home. Have you noticed that there's adequate staffing? One of the things that we're going to talk about in the next segment is the staffing in nursing homes. Host 2: There definitely are some advocates and people do need to do their homework. When we come back, like Dave said, "We're going to talk about some of the substandard care and issues that are there. Stick with us, we'll be right back on InSight.

Host 1: Welcome back to INSight. We are joined now by Dave Farnbaugh and we’re going to talk about a really important topic, something that people don’t necessarily think of until they’re in a situation. What do you do after you’ve been involved in an accident? It’s just one of those unfortunate things. Host 2: It’s something that we don’t want to happen, but unfortunately it does probably happen to everyone one at some point in their life. In their life, their driving down the road, and I’m in the car, let’s say someone hits me even and I’m not responsible for it at all. Let’s say even it’s a minor accident, do I need to get on the phone right then? I mean obviously I call the police first, then do I need to get on the phone and call the Sweeney Law Firm right then? What do I do? Dave: Well, the issue of whether you should call an attorney right away depends on the severity of the injuries that are involved. If it’s a minor crash then probably calling an attorney’s not the best idea but if you’ve been injured in an accident, you’ve been taken to the hospital, you’ve been treated at the emergency room, you have some on going symptoms and problems after the accident. It probably makes sense before you start talking to the insurance company to find out a little bit about what your rights are, about what’s going to happen, and those sorts of things, so it depends a lot on the severities of the injuries in the crash. Host 1: We live in an age where everyone has a cell phone that they can take pictures with. Do you recommend that if you’ve been in an accident, a car accident for example, that you or your family takes pictures right away? At the scene or later on? Dave: I think that the most important issue as it pertains to photographs is photographing the injuries themselves. Most of the time after a car crash, the insurance companies are going to be out taking a lot of photographs of the damage of the cars, but what comes and goes are the injuries from the crash itself. Often times people have bruises, seat belt bruises, or they’ll have a collection of blood, contusion, or hurt some part of their body that is going to be here today; gone in a few days.  If you don’t take photographs of those injuries then that critical evidence can be lost. Host 2: I know the couple of times that I’ve been in accidents, they’ve all been minor thank heavens, but they’ve not been my fault. They’ve been the other drivers fault. So the others drivers insurance company has called me and questioned me. Is it ok for me to talk to them? Dave: Well, that’s probably the big issues that a person has to decide from the get go about how they’re going to approach the insurance company contacting them. What people have to understand is that insurance companies are in business not only to pay claims but to minimize the amount of money that they pay out in claims. So insurance adjusters receive training on how to talk to people on the phone, get you to say things that maybe aren’t in your best interest. They always ask you, “Well how are you doing?” Most people don’t like to be on the phone and cry and whine about their own injuries, so a lot of people say, “Well, I guess I’m doing ok” or “I’m feeling better.” That’s a relative term. You might be feeling really bad, but compared to how you felt a day after the accident, you are doing better. There are certain things that people say to an insurance adjuster over the phone that causes harm to their legal case. We think it’s better if you are involved in any type of a serious accident where you receive treatment at the emergency room or you have some on going symptoms, to consult an attorney before hand to decide whether you should give a statement to an insurance company, what you should say, and also decide whether you may need an attorney to represent you in that case. It’s in your own best interest to have an attorney through this process. The insurance companies have done studies on the amount of compensation that a person receives if they don’t have an attorney or the amount of compensation that a person receives if they have an attorney. Insurance companies own research shows that if a person has an attorney they’re apt to receive twice as much compensation, even after attorneys fees are paid compared to their counter parts who don’t hire an attorney. That’s one of the critical issues, if you are entitled to compensation through medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering. You have to decide do I want to go at this alone, or do I want to get competent legal representation to help me though the process and hopefully maximize the amount of my recovery. Host 2: Is there some check list or something that the Sweeney Law Firm would have that can kind of tell us what we should do or give us a guide line of how we would go about it if we were in that situation? Dave: Well, we do. What we provide to consumers is information about some of the steps that they should take immediately after an accident. This pertains to how you should deal with the insurance company. Also, steps that you should take, including some common sense things, don’t give a statement over the phone unless you’re certain about what your legal rights are. Photograph your injuries. Just a variety of helpful tips and we put it in the form of a brochure or free report that we give people so if you go to our website or you call our law firm, we’ll send you this free report which gives people a lot of valuable information on what to do immediately after an accident. Host 1: That’s so great because a lot of times after an accident it shakes you up. And even though things might seem like common sense, you know as we sit here and talk; after you’ve had that traumatic experience – you don’t have your wits about you. Host 2: You don’t and you’re just overwhelmed by the whole situation. If you have been involved in an accident or feel like you need legal advice, you can give the Sweeney Law Firm a call today or visit their website.

According to Indiana code and the Medical Malpractice Act in the State of Indiana a claim, whether in contract or tort, may not be brought against a health care provider based upon professional services or health care that was provided or that should have been provided unless the claim is filed within two years after the date of the alleged act, omission, or neglect, except that a minor less than six years of age has until the minor's eighth birthday to file. The above video is an example of a case barred by the two year statute of limitations as written in the Medical Malpractice Act. Resources: http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title34/ar18/ch7.html http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title34/ar18/index.html http://www.in.gov/idoi/2614.htm

“We were just talking during the break, this is pretty timely, with the house passing health care legislation last night, and you said there were some things from a legal perspective that don’t add up.” “I think what I wanted to share with our viewers about the vote that just came down about the health care plan is as our viewers may or may not know. There was no significant tort inform measures that were included in the health care package that was just filed. That was one of the things that I think was subject to debate, weather the was gonna be some tort reform like capping damages for medical malpractice suits.” “And tort reform me revising the law?” “Mostly what it means in the context of health care is capping damages on medical malpractice suits. One of the theories with trying to reduce health care cost was that if you put caps on medical malpractice suits, that it would result in lowering of health care cost that the doctors practice too much defensive medicine, they order unnecessary test because they are afraid of being sued. There are runaway jury verdicts with medical malpractice suits so that if you cap damages you’ll bring down the cost. One of the things I think our viewers ought to know in this debate are some of the facts regarding what cost are associated with the medical malpractice system that might contribute to the health care system. One of the things I think our viewers ought to know is that if you completely eliminated all medical malpractice lawsuits all together, if there were no malpractice awards, if doctors weren’t charged premiums for medical malpractice – the total cost of the health care system would be less than 1% of the total health care cost.” “So it doesn’t have that much of an impact.” “Right, like I said, if you completely eliminated medical malpractice from our health care system. It would only eliminate less than 1% of the total cost. About 1 in every $6 dollars in our economy right now is spent on health care. So the congressional budget office said that if you put a cap on damages, you could reduce health care cost by about $11 billion a year, but people have to have that perspective that $11 billion a year would be less than 1% of the total cost of health care.” “Wow, so perhaps something that the congressional leaders didn’t take into account, or didn’t think through perhaps?” “Well, they may have taken it into consideration, but my point is, that if you just eliminated that whole system all together, you’re really not going to eliminate health care cost or reduce them considerably.”

“There was a recent study that came out in the Indianapolis Star. They did a pretty comprehensive study of the nursing homes in the state of Indiana and they found out that Indiana ranks 51st out of the 50 states. You might say, “Well how did we get to 51st?” They also counted the District of Columbia. But Indiana ranks 51st lowest in the quality of nursing homes in the United States. So obviously this was a very troubling study for the legislators and the nursing regulators in Indianapolis when they learned that we ranked dead last in the quality of nursing homes. They studies a lot of factors particularly the amount of man hours that were spent on each patient by CNAs and Nursing Assistants. They found once again that we rank dead last in the United States. They found that the for profit nursing homes were lower in quality than the not for profits as well so that was another result of the study. What I thought that I would suggest today are some things that our viewers can do if you find yourself in a situation with a loved one who you don’t feel is receiving appropriate care. There are some things that you can do, most notably there is an Ombudsman program in the state of Indiana where you can contact a person in our area that is responsible for responding to complaints in nursing homes and if you want to contact once again my office through the website, I will give you all that information for the Ombudsman. The other thing that your gonna wanna do if you have a loved one that’s about to go in a nursing home, I think you’re really gonna wanna do some research to the term “What is the best nursing home to place your loved one in” and there are some really good websites out there right now, most notably there’s a website called “Nursing Home Compare” that will give you great information comparing one nursing home, the quality factors of one nursing home versus another. Also, the Medicare website has some good information where it now gives nursing homes an actual grade, A-B-C-D and so on. So if you’re gonna put your loved one in a nursing home, and you’re about to make that decision, your really need to do your home work and do your research before you select a facility.”

“This is the time of year when a lot of people are involved in serious motor vehicle accidents weather that be motorcycles or on highways when there is more travel. What we see frequently in our office is when people are involved in a serious accident, there is often times not enough insurance coverage on the part of the party or person that causes the motor vehicle accident so there’s a need for you to go underneath your own coverage, your own automobile policy to be compensated for a serious accident. We always recommend to people when they come to our office is to contact your auto insurance agent and make sure that you have what they call Underinsured and Uninsured Motorist coverage. Uninsured obviously applies to a situation where the person that causes the accident does not have any insurance. Underinsured refers to a situation where the person that causes the accident has some insurance but not enough to cover the full extent of your damages. With the cost of medical care now, it doesn’t take very long when you are in the hospital to run through a person who only has let’s say $25,000 or $50,000 of liability insurance coverage. You can go through that coverage in a week or two in the hospital so it’s important to get adequate insurance coverage to protect you against the other guy.” “Even if the other guy is required by state law to have insurance, a lot of people still don’t have it.” “A lot of people. The statistics I’ve heard vary, but they say up to 20% of the drivers on the roadways do not have any insurance what so ever.”