Personal Injury Primer

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller concerned about problems he developed after what he was told was a routine gallbladder surgery.

He had pain and was told he needed gallbladder surgery. After the surgery was completed, he continued to have pain. He was released home, but after 24 hours, he came back to the ER.

A second surgery was required. The surgeon claimed a drain had to be put in. The pain persisted after the second surgery.

Eventually, the man went to another surgeon and discovered that he still had a partial gallbladder. The first surgeon botched the procedure.

This type of call is way too common.

Recently, an Alabama jury found a doctor was liable for a patient’s death after she experienced extreme pain following gallbladder surgery.

After the patient had surgery, she was discharged home. At home, she started feeling severe abdominal pain, despite having taken pain medication prescribed by her surgeon.

Her husband called the surgeon about his wife’s symptoms, and he was told that the pain was expected. But the pain persisted, and the husband took his wife to the surgical clinic, where the surgeon examined her.

The patient was told that abdominal pain was “normal,” and she was given pain medication to take.

But once the patient was home, her pain became worse, and an ambulance was called to take the patient to an emergency room.

At the ER, it was confirmed that the patient’s stomach was “full of bile.” The patient died a few hours later.

Unfortunately, these kinds of surgical and post-operative oversights happen, often with devastating consequences. Medical negligence claims like these are often complex and require skilled lawyers to comb through a patient’s medical records and imaging results, consult with medical expert witnesses, and draft persuasive briefs to submit to an Indiana medical review panel, before proceeding in court.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Many stores now utilize third-party delivery truck services to deliver goods to consumers.

Unfortunately, safety and insurance limit laws may not apply to these delivery programs.

First, commercial truck drivers must have a commercial driver’s license. This ensures that a driver has specialized training and skills.

Operating a small van or truck, smaller and lighter than a semi, enables a company to skirt commercial motor vehicle regulations that require more than a regular driver’s license.

Thus, third-party delivery companies are not required to mandate that drivers have a CDL.

Even though these delivery vehicles are being used in a commercial setting, the companies putting these vehicles on the road, are avoiding complying with other “commercial motor vehicle” laws, such as those that require minimum liability insurance coverage.

Many states, including Indiana, require insurance that mandates fleet coverage for commercial vans/trucks independent of VIN number. This means that where a commercial fleet is involved, an insurance carrier cannot escape liability by arguing that the vehicle involved in a crash was not specifically identified on a policy.

The law also requires minimum policy limits of $1,000,000.00. The purpose is to protect the public.

Often third-party delivery trucks are sized small enough so as to not qualify as commercial motor vehicles. This means that the companies who put these slightly smaller trucks and vans on the highway, can save money by not needing high premium $1,000,000  minimum insurance coverage mandated for commercial motor carriers.

Further, federal law states that commercial truck drivers must be found to be acting within the course and scope of their employment if they are operating a vehicle with a DOT license number displayed on the vehicle. It is mandatory. Before this law, enacted in the 1950s, commercial vehicle operators used the same specious “independent contractor” argument that these smaller delivery outfits are using to argue that they cannot be held liable for a driver’s negligence. In short, today’s third-party delivery truck fleets need not display DOT numbers; thus, no law is on the books mandating that a driver be found acting in the course and scope of their employment with the fleet owner.

Thus, big online merchants use third-party delivery truck companies and argue that these delivery drivers should be treated as independent contractors. If those drivers were found to be the merchant’s employees, the wealthy merchant could be held liable for the actions/inactions of its employee drivers.

If the merchant is not held responsible for the driver’s negligence, the motorist injured in a crash with the delivery truck may find that the driver has low-limit insurance.

Today’s third-party delivery drivers have all of the hallmarks of employees, but pieces of paper are signed that paint them as independent contractors.

As we just discussed, allowing merchants to bypass protective laws is fundamentally unfair to the motoring public.

Thankfully, a recent decision in Georgia state court found that a delivery truck service partner for Amazon was not an independent contractor. A jury found Amazon liable for negligently training a delivery truck driver who severely injured a child in a crash. The jury concluded that Amazon had sufficient control of the delivery truck company and its drivers and that the delivery driver was more like Amazon’s employee and not an independent contractor.

This is one of the first jury trials in the US that addressed the issue of whether Amazon is liable as an employer for the actions of its delivery partners’ drivers.

Hopefully, this Georgia case will encourage other judges and juries everywhere to see that merchants are held legally responsible for the negligence of delivery drivers.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com. While there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller concerned about his right to sue after being injured in a small plane crash. He was one of two passengers injured when the small plane he was in flipped on take-off. He was thankful he survived, but his injuries were quite serious and included a spinal injury. He has lost time from work and cannot engage in golf or tennis as he enjoyed doing before the crash. He asked about his legal options.

In the event of a small plane crash, a survivor (or an estate on behalf of someone killed in a crash) may be able to sue for damages and compensation.

Exactly who is named in the lawsuit will vary depending on the circumstances of the crash. Potentially responsible parties may include:

Keep in mind that if air traffic controller errors occur in the United States, the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) will govern whether an individual may sue the federal government for the negligence of federal employees.

In many situations, negligence will be strongly suspected when an airplane crashes unless the facts demonstrate that the accident was caused by weather or other factors beyond human control.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com. While there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller concerned about a relative who was shot while attending a sporting event at a stadium.

A shooting victim may have the right to sue a business where they were shot, but success will depend upon the facts.

If the business owner or manager fails to provide adequate security measures, such as proper lighting, cameras, or adequate staffing, and this negligence contributed to the shooting, the victim may have good grounds to succeed against the business where the shooting took place.

An example of such a case involves a news report of a woman who sustained injuries in a shooting incident while attending a professional baseball game.

She alleged that stadium security failed to stop someone from entering with a firearm. The firearm, which the stadium operator did nothing to prevent from being brought to the game, was discharged inside the ballpark during the game. She further claimed that the stadium owner failed to adhere to a publicly posted policy prohibiting firearms at the stadium.

Allegations are not evidence, however.

In answer to the complaint filed by the woman, the stadium operator claimed that the gun that discharged was smuggled into the stadium by the shooting victim and that the victim shot herself.

Hopefully, a trial will reveal the truth as to what happened, and hopefully the truth will prevail.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

According to various studies, medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Multiple studies, including those published in 2016, 2022, and 2024, have determined that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.

One study from 2022 notes that at least 250,000 Americans die each year due to medical errors.

These studies do not tabulate all of the people who are harmed as a consequence of medical mistakes but survive and do not die.

A medical error is a preventable adverse effect of medical care. Examples include botched surgeries, misdiagnoses, and prescription mistakes.

Why are medical errors occurring? What can be done to reduce the rate of medical errors?

Experts recommend redesigning medical systems and implementing legal reforms to reduce medical errors and fatalities.

Let’s focus on legal reforms.

Patients trust the healthcare system, and when that trust is broken, they deserve the opportunity to seek compensation and systemic changes.

The legal system plays an integral role in addressing the consequences of medical mistakes.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller who said his doctor prescribed the antibiotic Ciproflaxin (Cipro) without discussing its use with him.

The FDA’s black box warning for Cipro indicated serious risks, especially for patients who have a history of corticosteroid use, which applied to the caller.

After taking Cipro, the caller experienced severe adverse reactions, including tendon ruptures and peripheral neuropathy.

He wanted to know if he could successfully sue his doctor.

Success in a case where a physician prescribes a medication that the drug warnings say would be contraindicated for a patient will still require an expert opinion that it was below the standard of care to prescribe the medication to a patient.

You might think that the FDA warning itself could be used to establish the standard of care and that there would be no need for expert testimony.

But, you likely would be wrong in thinking that expert testimony would be unnecessary. At least one state trial court held that any FDA warning alone could be sufficient to establish the standard of care without expert testimony. But, the highest court in that state reversed holding that the FDA warnings cannot substitute for expert testimony to establish the standard of care in medical malpractice cases. The Court emphasized that medical judgment is required to determine the appropriate standard of care, which must be established by expert testimony.

If you are scratching your head, do you know what the term ‘contraindicated’ means? My guess is that, like most people, it is a new, unfamiliar word.

Contraindicated is medical speak that basically means: do not give.

Courts require medical expert testimony in medical malpractice cases because judges and jurors are not doctors.

Medical terms require a medical doctor’s explanation for everyone involved in the case. Requiring medical expert testimony helps ensure that justice is fairly administered.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller who said that when he stayed at a local hotel, he slipped while using the shower tub in his room and broke an arm. He said the shower floor was not slip-resistant. He wanted to know if he had a case to pursue against the hotel owner.

Where a hotel presents a guest with an unreasonably dangerous condition, it is possible to sue for negligence and seek damages for any injuries suffered. This means that a successful claim against the hotel owner is possible.

But keep in mind that the guest who sues has the burden of proof to establish all the material elements required to present a winning premises liability claim.

That means the guest, likely through expert testimony or other valid evidence, must show that presenting a guest with a shower tub without a slip-resistant surface to stand on was unreasonably dangerous. This evidence is crucial in establishing negligence and supporting a winning premises liability claim.

In other words, the mere fact that someone slipped in a wet shower tub without more evidence does not establish negligence on its own.

To be successful against the hotel, the guest and his attorney will need to be prepared to present evidence of industry standards, safety codes, or other expert testimony.

This expert testimony will need to support the claim that the shower tub was unusually slippery or unsafe, providing a strong foundation for the case.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com. While there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Occasionally, you hear in the news about a person injured in a stampede at a festival, parade, sporting event, theme park, or shopping sale.

Anytime there is a crowd of people, there is a potential for someone to be hurt by the crowd’s actions, such as being knocked down and crushed or suffocated during a stampede or even being lifted up and propelled in the air by crowd-goers.

When festivals, concerts, and other events that draw crowds are put on, the event organizer typically employs crowd control plans developed ahead of time to ensure everyone has a safe experience.

Crowd control involves much more than just having a security team on the ground watching for disorderly or violent conduct. It includes things like erecting barriers to keep people out of certain areas, having enough emergency exits, and proactively monitoring crowd dynamics and movement to ensure the density of people in one space does not get to such high levels that it becomes dangerous.

When a person is injured by a crowd surge or stampede, the event organizer can be held liable for failing to adequately control the crowd or failing to have appropriate safety measures in place to ensure the safety of all attendees.

Let’s suppose a woman takes her child to an amusement park on a summer weekend when the park is having a deeply discounted day.

There are special booths set up with all kinds of prizes. Many people are crowding into the park for the day and flocking to a particular section of the park where word got out that workers are giving away freebies that everyone seems to want.  Suddenly, the woman finds herself separated from her child in the mass of people.

She stops and looks around her to see where the child might be, but in stopping to look, she’s knocked to the ground by the excited people behind her who are anxiously trying to get to the freebies.

Once on the ground, she suffers severe injuries from the crowd surging over her.

Suppose still, that the child looks around and sees this all happening to his mother.

In this situation, the amusement park can likely be held liable for the woman’s injuries and the child’s emotional distress caused by witnessing this happen to his mother.

As part of a case investigation, the woman and child’s lawyer might learn that the park did not train its employees in crowd management.

Or perhaps the park did not have enough of its trained workers actually on duty watching over the crowd of people.

There are numerous negligent actions or inactions on the part of the park that an attorney may uncover in working on such a case.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Quite often, when we conclude a case with a client and hand them their check, the client will ask, “Should I make any changes to my car insurance?”

The right way to look at car insurance is to see it as providing financial protection if you are unfortunate and end up in a motor vehicle collision.

Injury bills and vehicle repair costs can quickly mount up.

Most car insurance carriers offer a variety of coverage choices, including:

A common mistake people make in Indiana is buying car insurance that provides just the bare minimum coverage and not choosing a policy with enough UIM coverage to protect them should they be in a crash with another driver who has little or no liability insurance.

Although you hope to never need your UIM coverage, it’s important to take time to think about how much coverage you can afford. Since this coverage protects you when others on the highway do not have insurance or have bare minimum levels of liability insurance, it makes sense to have the most coverage you can afford.

Additionally, people often fail to recognize that GAP coverage is important when purchasing a vehicle, especially if they’ve been sold a loan that is greater than the value of the vehicle purchased.

The minimum amount of liability car insurance coverage you need varies by state. In Indiana, the minimum amount of liability insurance coverage is $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 for bodily injury or death of two or more people in one accident, and $25,000 for damage or destruction of property in one accident. See Ind. Code § 9-25-4-5.

As attorneys who represent people injured in motor vehicle crashes, we recommend getting an insurance policy with the highest coverage levels that you can reasonably afford.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller concerned about obtaining damages for injuries suffered in a motorcycle crash that was not his fault.

Motorcycle crash victims have the same right to bring a lawsuit as other motor vehicle accident victims.

Motorcyclists, likewise, are entitled to recover for pain and suffering and other economic damages.

However, there is an essential difference between motorcycle crash cases and car-to-car or car-to-truck cases.

Motorcyclists are more susceptible to injuries due to the lack of protective barriers between them and other vehicles.

Because of this, motorcycle accidents often result in severe and permanent injuries, such as broken bones, road rash, traumatic brain injuries, neck and spine injuries, paralysis, and other catastrophic injuries.

Like other injury claimants, the motorcyclist must prove the at-fault driver’s negligence and must prove that the crash caused the claimed injuries.

The severity and impact of a motorcyclist’s injuries will influence the recovery that can be made in any particular case.

Lastly, it is unfortunate, but sometimes, we find that a bias against motorcyclists may exist within the minds of persons called to serve on a jury. Such bias could negatively affect the outcome of a lawsuit. However, a skilled attorney should be able to overcome such a bias.

Every motorcycle accident case is unique, and it’s essential to consult with an attorney to determine the best course of action for any situation.

Any early consult with an attorney soon after a motorcycle crash will best serve the injured motorcyclist and enable them to protect their interests and obtain the compensation they deserve proactively.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com. While there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”