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Bank Employees Help Drunk Driver Change Tire On September 27, 2012, then 29-year-old Gabriel A. Biddle pulled into the iAB Bank's Leo branch sometime before 2:30 p.m. Biddle first tried to enter the drive-thru going the wrong way and then stopped, his silver Toyota Corolla having a flat tire. According to the lawsuit filed by Neal, employees at the bank noticed Biddle staggering and acting as though he did not seem "aware." The lawsuit claims that the bank's employees recognized that Biddle appeared to have been drinking and were concerned that he might be driving drunk. Still, they helped him repair his flat tire when he could not. It was later revealed that someone from the bank did dial 911 to report a possible drunk driver, but it is unclear when this call was made. Three minutes later and 6 miles away, Fort Wayne police responded to a crash at Maplecrest and Evard roads. At the intersection of Maplecrest and Evard, Biddle rear-ended a vehicle at full speed and the collision caused a chain-reaction crash involving several vehicles. The driver of the first vehicle that was struck had to be extricated from her car and suffered broken ribs, fluid in her chest and throat from bruising and needed to have her elbow surgically repaired. A blood test revealed that Biddle had a blood alcohol content at more than six times the legal limit, an astounding 0.52. Suit has now been filed against the iAB bank for helping Biddle get back behind the wheel of his car. The Court, and possibly a jury, will now have to decide whether the bank employees helping Biddle change the tire was a proximate cause of the accident.

LEE KELSO: Every year thousands of Hoosiers are injured on roadways and motor vehicle accidents. Here today to talk about why there is an increase in the number of accidents on Indiana roadways is veteran trial attorney David Farnbauch, a personal injury attorney from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thanks for joining us today David. DAVID FARNBAUCH: It's great to be here today. LEE KELSO: Why are there so many accidents? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think that the reason that there are so many accidents on the roadways now as opposed to maybe a different era is the issue of driver distraction. I think nowadays you see lots of people that are on the roadways that are distracted by cell phones or smart phones. We see lots of accidents that are caused by young people who are texting while driving. You see a lot of people traveling down the roadways that are trying to carry on a conversation while they are driving. There are just a lot of distractions that cause people to collide with other vehicles. LEE KELSO: David in some states there are now laws on the books that prohibit drivers from talking on a cell phone or texting while driving. Has the Sweeney Law Firm seen an increase in accidents either from distracted driving or other similar problems. DAVID FARNBAUCH: There is no question that our office has seen a significant number cases that are a direct result of the use of technology while in the vehicle. I would say that about half of the cases that we see in our office now is motor vehicle accidents. There is some reference in the police report to a driver that was either reaching for a phone or they were texting while driving or something of that nature that causes them to be distracted while driving down the road. LEE KELSO: David, if one of our viewers is involved in a motor vehicle accident that's the vault of someone else, what advice do you have for them? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I have a couple pieces of advice I can give to people who are involved in a motor vehicle accident. I think the first thing is if you have symptoms and pain that you should seek medical treatment. People often don't go to the emergency room. They sort of delay getting medical treatment and I think that if you are showing symptoms and pain you should go to the emergency room. If you have symptoms and pain after visiting the emergency room you should go visit your family doctor or some other physician to get your symptoms checked out. That is the first piece of advice. The other thing is that people often delay getting legal advice after an accident. It does not cost anything to consult an attorney about an accident case, so I would recommend that you consult with an attorney shortly after an accident and get some legal advice about what your options are and what your rights are as the victim as an accident. LEE KELSO: Dave I would assume that after an auto accident the insurance adjuster for the at fault party tries to contact the injury victim to get a tape recorded interview or statement about what happened in the wreck. What advice do you have for victims who are asked to give a recorded statement? DAVID FARNBAUCH: I would say that probably the first piece of advice that I would give somebody after a motor vehicle accident is not to give a recorded statement to the adjuster or insurance company. LEE KELSO: Does the Sweeney Law Firm offer consultation to people who have been injured in a motor vehicle collision? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Sweeney Law Firm does offer free consultation in auto accident cases and I think most law firms that handle these types of cases offer free consultation. LEE KELSO: What are some of the reasons that a person who is injured in a car crash  would want to talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer before they talk to an insurance adjuster? DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think one of the common misconceptions that people have about insurance adjusters contacting them after an accident is that the insurance adjuster calling you should try to help you out, provide helpful information and pay money to you to fix your car pay medical expenses. I think that oftentimes people do not understand that the insurance adjuster has a job to try to investigate the accident and get you to day things that are helpful to the other insurance companies. I think oftentimes people when they are contacted by an insurance adjuster they say things about their medical condition or they make admissions or statements about the accident that are harmful to their case. I think it's oftentimes people are put into a stressful situation they aren't trained to deal with insurance adjusters and often they just say the wrong things that are recorded that ultimately hurt their legal case so it's important to talk to an attorney about the facts of the accident to get some advice on how to talk to insurance adjusters and learn about your legal rights before to talk to an insurance adjuster. LEE KELSO: Mr. Kelso you have given some good advice today. Thanks for spending some time with us. DAVE FARNBAUCH: Thanks for having me.

Host 1: Welcome back to INSight, we are joined now by attorney Dave Farnbaugh and attorney and doctor Greg Kauffman. They are from the Sweeney Law Firm and we are talking about medical malpractice and medical errors and they’re causing a lot of issues. Not just issues, they’re causing a lot of deaths in the United States, probably more than people realize. Yes? Dave: Yes. Charity, there are some pretty alarming statistics out there about what’s a health problem in the United States. Statistically there are a numbers of people in the United States each year that are injured as a result of medical errors or medical malpractice. They say anywhere from 40,000 to 98,000 people a year are killed as a result of medical malpractice. There was a recent study that was done that showed only 1 in 4 patients were told of an abnormal test result by their doctor. There are a lot of medical errors that cause harm and there’s a lot of things that can be done by patients to protect themselves from being a victim of medical malpractice. Host 1: Do you think that people are not doing anything when they are a victim of medical malpractice because they don’t realize they were a victim of medical malpractice or because they think that it’s too expensive to proceed with a medical malpractice case? Greg: Well I think that both factors are operative. I think a lot of times, individuals and families don’t know what’s happened. I’ve seen many many cases in my career where people for example have a child whose brain damaged. Sometimes these people are told for years by doctors who see the child that there was some kind of problem with an infection during the pregnancy or maybe it’s an inherited disorder or something like that. There really is great reluctance on the part of doctors to inform families about mistakes, so a lot of times they just don’t know and a lot of times people don’t know what can really be done about it. They’re concerned about the cost of taking action so it’s a multi-factorial kind of problem. Host 2: Now if someone has been or a loved one has been a victim of medical malpractice, obviously the last step would be to come to an attorney and handle that. But what are some steps that you can take to be proactive so that perhaps this doesn’t happen in the first place? Dave: Well there are a number of things I think that can be done. In fact, there is a wonderful book if you come to our website that was written by an attorney in Washington D.C. that lays out nine steps that people can take on their own to prevent one from being a victim of medical malpractice. One of the most important things that you can do is a very simple thing is to get a copy of your own medical records and read them. A lot of times you are going to learn things that are in your medical records. A lot of people are under the misconception that only doctors can understand medical records. It’s really not that way. There are probably some things that are in your medical records that would surprise you. One of the things you can learn by getting your own medical records is how good of a listener your doctor is. One of the key things is to find a physician whose a good listener and is willing to communicate with other physicians that they refer your care to. Because that’s one of the major causes of medical malpractice events is when health care providers don’t talk to other health care providers. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing so test results are put into your chart but the doctor never looks at it or a referral is not made with regard to an abnormal test finding and then later on it’s discovered but it’s too late to do anything about it. So the most important thing that you can do is be proactive, get a copy of your medical records, read them, get a second opinion, not just with the regard on the decision to have surgery, a lot of people will only get a second opinion if a surgery is recommended. At every major cross road where you face an important medical decision, you should get a second opinion, or a third opinion. Doctors will frequently disagree about what the diagnosis is and what the proper course of action is. Greg: Another thing that I think people can do to help protect themselves in the medical system is to be their own advocates. Make sure that your doctor is listening; make sure the doctor understands the problems that you’re having. I think it’s very helpful if a family member, or if no family member is available a friend who would go with the patient to the doctor or spend time with the patient in the hospital and take note of what’s going on and sort of ask questions on behalf of the patient I think that’s very important. Dave: I think once again to throw another statistic at viewers, which I think is very interesting, they’ve done studies on how many people actually do something when they are a victim of medical malpractice and the statistics show that only 1 in 8 people that are the victim of medical malpractice ever even assert a legal claim. The reason for that I think, after having done these cases for a long time Greg and I, a lot of people are concerned that taking action to pursue a medical malpractice case is something that can be very costly on their part and it doesn’t cost anything. Lawyers who handle these types of cases generally take these cases on a percentage fee basis which means we only charge a fee if we make a recoveries. Most offices that do these kinds of cases finance the litigation. We pay for the expert witnesses, we pay to get the medical records, so there’s really no out of pocket cost on the clients behalf. What you really need to do to get the ball rolling is simply pick up the phone and call an attorney who specializes in these types of cases and then we get the records and hire doctors to review the records and give us analysis and opinions about whether there is a meritorious legal case. Then we have a meeting with the client, we say this is what we recommend. Either you don’t have a case that is worth pursuing or you do. Then we run with it. One of the most valuable services that we could provide, even in cases that we ultimately recommend to the client that we don’t pursue a case, is we can give them some answers about what happened and that’s one of the most valuable functions. Often times these families will have a ton of questions when there’s an adverse medical event about what happened in the whole scenario, why there’s a bad outcome or an injury to a loved one or a child and Greg and I can provide them with answers about what happened. Greg: The fact that I am a physician enables me in the vast majority of cases to be able to simply talk with family members and just from the information that I gained, just from that interchange, I can almost always tell if it is something that can be pursued or something that really shouldn’t be pursued. Host 1: All right, well if you have some questions give the Sweeney Law Firm a call today and they can provide you with answers that you need.

LEE KELSO: The field of medical malpractice is one of the most specialized areas in all of law. Medical malpractice cases are among the most complex and difficult cases and there are not many lawyers who can handle these cases on a regular basis. With us today is a medical malpractice lawyer David Farnbauch. David, glad you could be with us today to talk about medical malpractice. DAVID FARNBAUCH: Its great to be here today. LEE KELSO: David let's start with some of the basics. Can you explain by what is meant by the term medical malpractice? Well the term medical malpractice really means that a doctor or a hospital or some healthcare provider, provided care that was below what is known as the standard of care is the level of care or expertise expected to be provided by the typical medical provider in that field. LEE KELSO: David what are some of the more common types of medical malpractice handled by you over the years. DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think some of the most common types of medical malpractice that we see in our office are cases that involve the failure to diagnose a particular condition. Sometimes there are problems revealed in tests, x-rays that are taken, studies that are done that reveal that is a tumor or problem and that report is given to a doctor and the doctor never relays that information to the patient, so there is nothing to follow up on the treatment after that condition has been discovered. Then, later on a person develops cancer or another serious condition that could have been treated earlier. Thus there is a claim brought against the doctor or medical provider for failing to diagnose the problem earlier. Another type of a medical malpractice case would be a case where surgery was performed and the surgery was not performed according to the standard of care and an injury results. LEE KELSO: If one of our viewers believes that they have been harmed as a result of medical malpractice what's the first step? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think the first step is to contact a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in medical malpractice cases. What is usually involved in a medical malpractice case is we collect all of the medical documents that surround a precedure or medical care and treatment that was rendered to the patient. We provide those records to another doctor or a specialist in that field of medicine to analyze whether there has been medical malpractice involved in the care. LEE KELSO: David if someone believes that they have been the victim of medical malpractice does it cost them anything to have your law firm investigate the case and decide whether the case is worth being pursued. DAVID FARNBAUCH: No it does not cost anything. We handle medical malpractice cases on a contingent fee basis. We never charge a fee unless there is a recovery, settlement, or verdict in the case. it will not cost the client anything to have us investigate the case. If there are expenses involved in hiring witnesses to analyze the medical records and determine whether there has been a  breach of the standard of care then our office advances those expenses on behalf of the client. LEE KELSO: If it is proven that a doctor or a hospital committed medical malpractice causing injury or harm to a patient what kinds of damages could be recovered in lawsuit. DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well in a medical malpractice case it is much like a personal injury case where danages can be recovered for the injuries themselves for physical pain and mental suffering caused by those injuries. If there is medical expenses to treat the medical malpractice that is recoverable. Damages can be recovered from missing work. If the ability to pursue a career was damaged or impaired we can recover damages for lost future earnings. if there is a death as a result of a medical malpractice. Also if there is a loss of love and companionship for the loved ones of the injured. LEE KELSO: David is there a statute of limitations on filing a medical malpractice case? DAVID FARNBAUCH: There are time limits for filing a medical malpractice case in Indiana. Your case has to be filed within two years of the occurence of the negligent act or malpractice. Thus, it is important for people if they believe that they or a family member was the victim of medical malpractive should contact an attorney as soon as the alledged negligent act occured, so an investigation can be conducted before the statute of limitations expires. LEE KELSO: David you have given us very good information about medical malpractice. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. It was a pleasure spending time with you today.

Indiana Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer David Farnbauch from the Sweeney law firm discusses pressure ulcers and the types of problems they cause for older people in nursining homes. If you have a loved one in a nursing home that is bed bound, you want to make sure to check their skin to see if they are developing any kind of pressure ulcers.  Pressure ulcers can cause serious pain and problems for people in nursing homes. If you or a loved one has been a victim of elder abuse or neglect, contact The Sweeney law firm today for a free consultation. 1-866-793-6339 (Toll Free) 1-260-420-3137 (Local) 1-260-969-0321 (Fax)

LEE KELSO: With an ever aging population more and more people are going to require long term care in a nursing home facility. Despite the compassionate and dedicated care provided by the vast majority of nurses and CNAs who take care of the nursing homes, there are some alarming statistics about the numbers of injuries and deaths that occur in nursing homes. Recent studies show that a significant number of nursing homes do not have enough staff to provide adequate care for residents. Particularly in the for profit nursing homes. Joining us today about nursing home care in Indiana is attorney David Farnbauch, a trial lawyer with the Sweeney Law Firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thanks for spending some time with us today David. It's an important topic that affects a lot of people. DAVID FARNBAUCH: It's a pleasure to be here today. LEE KELSO: David it is my understanding looking at your biography, that your law firm has a particular interest in representing nursing home residents and their families. Can you tell us how it is you began representing nursing home residents in legal cases? DAVID FARNBAUCH: My career as a nursing home lawyer began about fifteen years ago when I handled my first against a nursing home that involved a very severe pressure sore or pressure ulcer in an elderly nursing home resident. At that time I had no idea what a pressure ulcer was. I was really horrified at the debilitating nature of that injury in this elderly nursing home resident. I began doing some research on the incidents of pressure sores, injuries, and abuse to people in nursing homes. I was really astounded by how many people every year suffer injuries and neglect as a result of being in a nursing home. LEE KELSO: You told a little bit about nursing home residents developing serious pressures in nursing homes. Can you tell us about some of the other types of injuries that can occur when there is under-staffing? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think some of the more common injuries that we see in nursing homes are injuries from falls. Often elderly residents are not given proper fault, precautions and they suffer injuries from falls, fractured hips, broken necks, serious fractures from falls in nursing homes. They also suffer serious episodes of dehydration where they don't receive proper fluids and they become dehydrated and their internal organs start to shut down from dehydration and they have to be sent to the hospital and often these episode of dehydration lead to subsystem deaths. We see many, many different types of injuries in nursing homes. LEE KELSO: You know I have heard that nursing home industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the U.S. Tell you viewers about the government regulations in place to protect nursing home residents DAVID FARNBAUCH: Nursing homes are heavily regulated. Most people who end up in a nursing home, there care is at least partially funded by medicare payments. Medicare has an activist, a very extensive series of regulations known as over regulations that govern every aspect of nursing home care. LEE KELSO: With all of the federal and state regulations in place to protect nursing home residents I'm curious as to why we're seeing this big increase in the number of residents suffering injuries in nursing homes. DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think the biggest reason that we are seeing an increase in the number of injuries in nursing homes relates to the inadequate staffing that we see in many for-profit nursing homes. I've said many times over the course of my career handling nursing home cases that almost every case stems from inadequate staff. A nursing home has to have enough nurses and nurses aides to provide care to these elderly residents. When they need to be turned and repositioned, their in bed, or need some assistance in going to the bathroom to prevent falls, if you don't have adequate staff there to help people get to the bathroom or be turned and reposition there's going to be injuries, so I think that all these cases really stemmed from inadequate staffing. LEE KELSO: What advice can you pass along to the family that is faced with having to out a loved on into a nursing home to reduce the risk that they would suffer farm in that nursing home's care? DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think the most important thing that any family should do to try to reduce the risk that something will happen to their loved one is to do a thorough investigation on the nursing home. There's a variety of websites that are available to review to look at the track record of the nursing home to see if they have been sited by the state department of health and see if they have had claims and lawsuits against a facility and see what they're ratings are. The other thing that families can do is simply do a thorough investigation of the facility. Go there, take a through look around. See what it is like. See how the residents are treated. Do a comprehensive search in your area. Take a look at multiple homes in your area to see is the residents that are there and if the families are satisfied with the care. I think that the biggest thing that you can do to protect your loved ones is to really check out the background of the nursing home. LEE KELSO: In the event that one of our viewers has a family member who does suffer serious injury as a result of neglect of neglect in a nursing home and wants to investigate whether there is a potential legal claim against the nursing home, what's the first step? DAVE FARNBAUCH: I think the first step if you were contemplating a claim against a nursing home is to contact a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in handling nursing home cases. These cases are a lot more complex than the typical personal injury case. I think any lawyer that handles these cases has to have extensive knowledge of the over regulations that govern nursing homes. They have to be familiar with the nursing standard of care. They have to be familiar with experts that testify in these types of cases. I would encourage anybody that is pursuing one of these cases to get in touch with a law firm that has some special expertise in handling these cases. LEE KELSO: I'm sure that viewers must be wondering how much it costs to hire a firm like the Sweeney Law Firm to investigate or hire a nursing home expert to investigate and review the nursing home records. how much does an investigation like that cost? DAVID FARNBAUCH: It actually does not cost the client anything to have our office investigate a nursing home case. When we meet with a family, if we determine that there appears to be a meritorious nursing home case we will pay for expert witnesses to review the records and determine whether there has been a breach of the nursing standards of care and our law firm advances those expenses. If there is a successful recovery than those expenses have to be reimbursed to the firm, but it does not cost the client anything to retain our law firm to have us investigate the case. LEE KELSO: David we appreciate you sharing your insight on nursing homes. You've given viewers some valuable information and probably it's going to affect all of us at some point in our lives, so thanks a lot. DAVID FARNBAUCH: It was great to be here today.

LEE KELSO: The warm weather is upon us. The streets and highways see the return of motorcycles. There is no question that the number of people buying and riding motorcycles is on the rise. Unfortunately with the increasing number of motorcyclists on the highways that means that there are more accidents involving motorcycles than ever before. We are here to talk about the legal aspects of motorcycle accidents and what you can do to protect your legal rights should you have an accident. With us today is David Farnbauch, a personal injury attorney with the Sweeney Law Firm from Fort Wayne. Thanks for being with us. DAVID FARNBAUCH: It's great to be here today. LEE KELSO: David, you have had your share of motorcycle cases during your twenty-five year career. What is it that makes motorcycle cases different from other types of automobile accident cases. DAVID FARNBACH: Well I think one of the things that stands out about motorcycle accident cases is that normally the severity of injury to the motorcycle rider. Most of these cases involve very severe injuries and oftentimes long ball severe injuries and will involve the death of the rider. LEE KELSO: If one of our riders is involved in a motorcycle accident that's the fault of another driver what are some of the things the motorcyclist or his or her family should be thinking about in order to protect their legal rights DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well one of the things that we find about motorcycle accident cases is oftentimes the testimony of high witnesses is critical. Oftentimes there will be witnesses to a motorcycle collision that have different perspectives and viewpoints on what they saw in connection with a particular accident or observations about the speed of the motorcycle or the speed of the car that came in contact with a motorcyclist, so it's very important to get statements of the eye witnesses to a motorcycle accident shortly after the accident while their memories are still fresh. LEE KELSO: Mr. Farnbauch, Indiana has a system called comparative fault that is utilized by a jury to determine who's at fault in any type of accident including accidents involving a motorcycle. Could you explain just what that comparative fault system is and what the challenges are when you're representing a motorcyclist in a jury trial. DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well comparative is simply a process that we use in Indiana to assign percentages of fault to the various participants in an accident. For example if there's a simple collision where a car pulls out in front of a motorcyclist a jury is asked to assign how much fault there is on the driver who pulled out in front of the motorcyclist and is asked to assign fault to the motorcyclist. If there's an allegation that the motorcyclist was exceeding the speed limit. The jury is simply asked to put a percentage of fault on the various parties that are involved in an accident. Some of the challenges in a motorcycle case are the speed of the motorcycle, whether the motorcyclist was paying attention to what was happening in front of them. These cases are particularly challenging in a jury trial because oftentimes there is a bias on the part of the jury against motorcycles. A lot of people don't respect the rights of motorcyclists on the roadways. LEE KELSO: Before you came on the show today you mentioned that one of the major problems you encountered in motorcycle accident cases is the amount of insurance coverage that is typically available in these cases. can you explain exactly what that problem is involving insurance coverage? DAVID FARNBAUCH: As I mentioned before motorcycle cases normally we're dealing with motorcyclists who have suffered severe or catastrophic injuries or motorcyclist who have died as a result of being in an accident, so these cases normally have very significant value in terms of damages. So what we frequently encounter in motorcycle cases is a motorist or the operator of a car that causes the accident that may be insured, but may not carry enough insurance coverage to cover all the damages. So typically we have to look at the motorcyclist underinsured motorist coverage. Frequently in our office we find that motorcyclists don't carry sufficient underinsured motorist coverage on their motorcycle policies. LEE KELSO: David it seems like a personal injury claim involving an injury to a motorcyclist is a lot more involved than a run of the mill legal claim. What advice would you give viewers when it comes to picking an attorney to handle a case that involves a serious injury while riding a motorcycle? DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think that motorcycle accident cases are unique because oftentimes in a motorcycle accident case it'll be critical to do an investigation early in the case and interview witnesses. Its important to get an attorney early in the game so proper investigation can be done. Oftentimes in motorcycle cases it will require that the lawyer hire a very competent, well-trained accident reconstruction expert, to try to put together the investigation, piece together the physical evidence and determine how the accident actually happened. That has to be done early in the process. if I were to give some advice to someone who has been involved in a motorcycle accident case. i would say hire an attorney who is experienced in handling motorcycle accident cases. LEE KELSO: Thanks for the information and advice David. Glad you could join us today to share that insight and experience. DAVID FARNBAUCH: it was great to be here today.

LEE KELSO: There is no greater loss one can suffer than to lose a spouse, child, parent, or close family member particularly if your loved one's death is caused by the negligence or fault of another party. The loss of a loved one can have devastating consequences both emotional and financial. Joining us today to talk about legal claims arising from the wrongful death of a loved one is attorney David Farnbauch, a personal injury attorney with the Sweeney Law Firm in Fort Wayne. Thanks for spending some time with us today to talk about wrongful death claims David. DAVID FARNBAUCH: Thanks for having me. LEE KELSO: David, you have handled a number of wrongful death cases in the course of your career. How do these cases differ from cases involving serious injury? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well, I think the central feature of wrongful death cases, the case is really about the loss of the survivors. The most important element of damages in a wrongful death case is the loss of death and companionship for the person who's deceased. LEE KELSO: When a person dies as a result of someone else's negligence what are some of the different categories of damages that you can recover in a wrongful death case? DAVID FARNBAUCH: As I mentioned earlier, the most important element of damage or category of damage in a wrongful death case are damages to a spouse or to a child or to a loved one as a result of the loss of love and companionship for the person that died. Another important category or element of damage in the wrongful death case or loss of future earnings. If a loved one dies and was projected to work another twenty or thirty years, the family can recover damages for the loss of future earnings. Another element of damage in a wrongful death case are the recovery of the funeral burial expenses associated with the person's death. LEE KELSO: David it might be helpful if you take your viewers through some of the steps that are involved when your office is involved to represent a family in a wrongful death case. DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well obviously the first is to schedule an appointment to meet with one of our lawyers in our office. We try to be as understanding ans compassionate as we can be when we are dealing with a family who has had the loss of a loved one. It's a very traumatic time and a very trying time and we try to be understanding and compassionate and try to give out helpful information and advice to families that are involved in this situation. The other thing that is unique about wrongful death cases is normally we have to open up what is known as an estate. An estate is simply a legal proceeding that's filed in a probate court with the county where a family member, usually a spouse, is selected to serve as the personal representative of the estate to pursue a legal case. LEE KELSO: Can you offer any advice to families who've lost a loved one and have reason to believe that the loss of that person was caused by the fall of another party? DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well as I mentioned earlier the first thing to do in a situation where there has been a wrongful death and a potential legal case is to meet with an attorney, hopefully an experienced attorney who has handled wrongful death cases before. The other thing I can encourage families to do because we've had a number of cases in our office where we've represented families in a wrongful death situation is to seek counseling. Oftentimes these are very emotionally traumatic situations and we find that the families who seek counseling out professional psychological counseling after a wrongful death event, they really benefit from that type of counseling. LEE KELSO: Thanks for sharing time and insights with us today here. DAVID FARNBAUCH: It was great to be here.

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

“I’ve heard in Indiana unlike some other states that someone who is injured or involved with medical malpractice say in a hospital or nursing home can’t file a lawsuit in court but instead have to file that case before a panel of doctors. Can you explain the reason for that?” “Indiana has sort of a unique set of laws that govern medical malpractice. Most states if you have a medical malpractice case you can file that case directly in court and begin the process with the court system. In Indiana, most medical providers are what we call qualified providers and their entitled the protections of the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act and what that means from a practical standpoint is the case has be filed with a medical review panel which consist of three medical providers who vote on the merits of that case before you can file your case in court. It has been in effect since 1975.It is unique to Indiana. We also have some interesting laws that govern medical malpractice such as caps on damages. Most people do not know that in the state of Indiana, there is a medical malpractice cap of 1.25 million dollars regardless the amount of harm that has been cause by the doctor or hospital. The most that you can recover in a medical malpractice case in the state of Indiana is 1.25 million dollars which is in some cases where you have catastrophic injuries and damages; it presents a very unique hardship to the victim of medical negligence because they are capped out on their recovery. We have some laws in Indiana that make it very adventitious to practice medicine from a legal liability standpoint in this state.”

“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.”