Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Greater Indianapolis

$8.5 Million Settlement

Medical Malpractice Verdict – Indianapolis claim against a surgeon who failed to timely identify a small bowel obstruction. The jury returned a verdict for $8.5 million.

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Medical malpractice occurs when a person is injured or has died due to negligence on the part of a medical professional. If you or a loved one has been injured due to the negligence or fault of a hospital, doctor, or other medical professional, a medical malpractice lawyer in Shelbyville can help you get compensation.

The medical malpractice lawyers at Stephenson Rife provide a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss the circumstances of your case, so call us today at 317-961-8609 to see how we can help.

Why Hire Our Indiana Malpractice Lawyers

When you seek care from a medical practitioner, you expect to be helped, but medical mistakes can happen and do major damage. While not everything that goes wrong medically is malpractice, if the harm was caused by negligence, you may have grounds to hold the professional, facility, or company involved liable in a medical malpractice lawsuit. While all of these parties usually have insurance, those companies will try to get you to settle for as little as possible. Our medical malpractice attorneys in greater Indianapolis know how to confront their tactics and hold all liable parties accountable.

Our attorneys know Indiana law and can determine whether your case is valid. The medical malpractice lawyers at Stephenson Rife take the burden off you by handling all aspects of your case. We conduct investigations, examine records, interview witnesses, negotiate with insurance companies and their lawyers, and take the case to court if necessary. We also help seniors harmed by medical malpractice.

Let our team of medical malpractice attorneys in Shelbyville take care of the legal hurdles so you can concentrate on your recovery.

How Our Indiana Medical Negligence Attorneys Support You

At Stephenson Rife, we provide you with full support because medical malpractice cases can be a long and slow process. Our malpractice lawyers in Indiana will reach out and connect with you via email, text messages through our portal, phone calls, and visits to your home to discuss what is currently going on in your case. We strive to be transparent in terms of expectations, and we educate our clients on particulars of the process, including why it’s so lengthy.

Damages Our Hospital Injury Lawyers May Recover

In a successful medical malpractice case, our hospital injury attorneys may recover a compensation award, called damages, for your losses. Damages can be categorized as general damages, special damages, and punitive damages.

General damages are non-economic and do not have a specific dollar value, and can be based on factors such as:

Physical and emotional pain and suffering
Loss of enjoyment and quality of life
Loss of consortium and companionship

Special damages are quantifiable monetarily and may include:

Medical and rehabilitative bills and expenses
Loss of wages and future earning capacity
Funeral expenses in case of death

Punitive damages can also be sought in rare cases to punish a defendant if the malpractice was grossly negligent or outrageous. There are, however, specific punitive damage limits on medical malpractice cases in Indiana. They cannot be more than the greater of: (1) 3 times the amount of compensatory damages awarded; or (2) $50,000. Punitive damages remain exceedingly rare in Indiana.

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Practice Areas

Business Law
Business Litigation
Business Mediation
Elder Law
Estate Planning
Employment Law

Personal Injury
Medical Malpractice
Product Liability
Product Defect
Real Estate Law
School Law

Medical Malpractice Attorneys Proving Negligence

Medical professionals are expected to adhere to the same standard of care that other reasonably careful professionals would under similar circumstances. If they fail to do so and you were harmed as a result, they may be found negligent and guilty of malpractice. However, if a doctor tells a patient there is a small percentage chance of a bad outcome, and you ultimately are a member of the small percentage, that is not necessarily malpractice.

Our medical negligence lawyers in greater Indianapolis seek out very highly qualified medical experts who practice in the same area of medicine as the doctor, nurse, or hospital that we are making a claim against. Then, we ask the doctor to provide us with the latest literature on the topic. We also hire a consulting expert whose sole focus is helping with research and preparing us for depositions of doctors and medical staff.

Our Shelbyville malpractice attorneys can prove that malpractice existed because the medical professional:

Had a duty of care not to cause you harm
Breached that duty by acting negligently
Caused your injuries by breaching that duty
Caused you to suffer damages as a result

Examples of negligence that may qualify as medical malpractice can include:

What Timeline Can I Expect?

The timeline of a medical malpractice case can vary significantly depending on the circumstances. While some cases may be resolved more quickly without having to go through a medical review panel, others can take years.

For example, we recently resolved a case without using the panel, and it still took 2.5 years to settle. Another case that we settled involved delays due to COVID-19, ultimately taking 6 years to settle.

Call Our Medical Lawsuit Lawyers in Shelbyville for Help

If you or a loved one has suffered injury caused by medical malpractice, time is of the essence because Indiana has a statute of limitations for most medical malpractice claims.

According to Indiana Code section 34-18-7-1, you have two years to get a medical malpractice lawsuit started from the time you discovered the injury. According to Indiana Code section 34-18-8-4, you must first file a complaint with a medical review panel. The panel will review records and hear testimony to see whether the evidence shows that the standard of care was violated.

Contact our medical lawsuit lawyers in Indiana today to see how we can help you.

M. Michael Stephenson

Founding Partner

Attorney Mike Stephenson has 40 years of experience and is a trusted advisor to many individuals and companies. His current practice is dominated by civil litigation in state and federal courts. He focuses much of his time on handling catastrophic injuries caused by all types of accidents, including car wrecks, semi, industrial, product liability, and fire, just to name a few. He also works extensively in construction-related matters.

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Brady J. Rife

Founding Partner

Brady Rife has developed a diverse civil litigation practice for plaintiffs throughout Indiana. Brady is heavily involved in serious personal injury matters, complex business and commercial disputes, and insurance litigation in state and federal courts. Brady has successfully tried several jury trials and bench trials as lead counsel and has also briefed multiple cases before the Indiana Court of Appeals.

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