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Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC

State supreme court finds malpractice law applies to claims brought in Elkhart County class action suit

By Personal Injury No Comments

A split Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act does apply to claims in a class-action lawsuit brought in Elkhart Superior Court on behalf of patients against an unspecified hospital. The high court affirmed the lower court’s ruling on the application of the MMA, but reversed the trial court’s denial of the patients’ motion for class certification….

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State’s high court to consider liability claim against Evansville church

By Personal Injury No Comments

The Indiana Supreme Court has agreed to hear an Evansville church’s argument that it was not liable for a volunteer’s injuries because it was protected by a state law that generally holds churches harmless in certain situations when accidents occur on church property. In April, the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected the argument and ruled that the protections apply only…

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Disney Worker Injured Trying to Stop Runaway Boulder at Indiana Jones Show

By Personal Injury, Workers' Compensation No Comments

A Walt Disney World worker in Florida was injured while attempting to stop a large runaway prop boulder from rolling into seated spectators at the Indiana Jones live show. The worker at the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios park was knocked to the ground by the 400-pound (181-kilogram) prop boulder after it moved off its…

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State’s high court blocks revival of Olympian’s lawsuit against USA Track & Field

By Personal Injury No Comments

The Indiana Supreme Court has blocked the revival of a lawsuit brought by an Olympic athlete against USA Track & Field after she collapsed from heat-related injuries at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials. In a 4–1 decision issued Wednesday, the justices held that Marion Superior Court Judge Patrick Dietrick properly denied heptathlete Taliyah Brooks’ attempt to amend her complaint after…

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Monroe Circuit Court must grant summary judgment to IU in sports injury lawsuit, appellate court rules

By Personal Injury No Comments

An exercise that Indiana University coaches instructed football players to perform was within the range of ordinary behavior involved in strength and conditioning, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday in overturning a lower court’s decision after a former member of IU’s football team sued the school for an eye injury he suffered during a strength training session. The Monroe…

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Woman who slipped running to get help for worker sues Schnucks

By Personal Injury No Comments

A Maryville woman who slipped and fell at a Collinsville Schnucks supermarket while she was allegedly running to get help for a store worker who had suffered a seizure in the parking lot is suing Schnucks, saying they should pay for her injuries because store managers had assigned the worker to gather carts from the parking lot, even though they…

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Baby formula makers can’t escape St. Clair County lawsuits

By Personal Injury No Comments

A state appeals panel has ruled Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson must continue defending themselves against a rash of lawsuits seeking payouts for marketing and selling baby formula allegedly linked to cases of a condition potentially fatal in infants. Thousands of lawsuits have landed in court over cases of the condition known as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which results in the…

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$3.5M verdict tossed; Judge shielded evidence of plaintiff’s dishonesty, crime

By Personal Injury No Comments

A state appeals panel voided a $3.5 million verdict awarded to a man who claimed he was hurt while working for Union Pacific because the court determined a Cook County judge wrongly blocked the railroad from telling jurors about the man’s prior conviction for a crime related to dishonesty. Jeffrey Kozik Jr. sued UP in August 2019 over an incident…

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Provider choice proposals trending in comp

By Workers' Compensation No Comments

Several states have taken steps toward letting injured workers choose their own doctors, a trend experts say can affect costs and outcomes as a key element of medical control shifts away from employers and insurers. H.B. 1069, introduced Dec. 5 in Indiana, would amend state law to require employers after June 30, 2026, to pay for an “attending physician” selected…

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Illinois to consider expanding presumptions to hospital staff

By Workers' Compensation No Comments

Illinois lawmakers have introduced legislation that would expand workers compensation presumptions to cover hospital security guards who develop certain illnesses or medical conditions linked to their jobs. H.B. 4226, introduced Thursday, would amend the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act to add hospital security guards to the list of public-facing safety workers eligible for rebuttable presumptions of compensability. The bill builds on…

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