Valparaiso Woman Awarded $4.1 Million After Trucking Company Admitted Its Driver Ran a Red Light
Won by Schafer & Schafer LLP.
A Porter County jury awarded Courtney Faulhaber $4.1 million after a B&W Cartage Company semi-truck ran a red light on U.S. 6 in June 2020 and struck her car. The company did not dispute that its driver caused the crash, so the trial turned entirely on how badly Faulhaber was hurt. The defense argued her head injury was a temporary concussive event and pointed to how little treatment her medical records showed, while her lawyers argued the collision left her with a lasting brain injury. The jury found for Faulhaber and awarded her $4.1 million, and it rejected a companion loss of consortium claim brought by her husband.
What happened
On June 20, 2020, Courtney Faulhaber was driving south on Calumet Avenue in Porter County, Indiana, and had entered the intersection with U.S. 6 on a green light. A westbound semi-trailer truck operated for B&W Cartage Company ran the red light and struck her vehicle. The lawsuit identified the truck driver as Siliman Ibrahim and accused him and the company of negligence.
Faulhaber, a radiology technician from Valparaiso, sued over a brain injury along with injuries to her left shoulder and spine. B&W Cartage did not contest that its driver caused the crash. Her attorney, Todd Schafer, told The Times of Northwest Indiana that the defense agreed it had run the red light and caused the collision but refused to pay for the damage it had done.
What the case turned on instead was the severity and permanence of the head injury. The Indiana Jury Verdict Reporter, which has covered trials across the state since 2000, described the collision as a very hard hit and reported competing proof at trial over whether Faulhaber had a permanent traumatic brain injury or a temporary concussive event that had already resolved. The defense leaned on how thin her treatment record was. Her side argued that the symptoms were lasting and that her future was uncertain.
The case was tried in Porter Superior Court 6 before Judge Jeffrey L. Thode. The trial ran just over a week and ended in early October 2025. The jury found for Faulhaber and awarded her $4.1 million. Her husband, Jeffrey Faulhaber, had brought a loss of consortium claim arising from the same crash, and the jury rejected it.
Todd S. Schafer and Timothy S. Schafer of Schafer & Schafer in Merrillville represented Courtney Faulhaber. B&W Cartage was defended by Brandt E. Poling of Columbus, Ohio, Thomas P. Mannion of Lewis Brisbois in Cleveland, and Michael T. Clarke of Cassiday Schade in Chicago.
The verdict is notable for the gap between what the company admitted and what it was willing to pay. With fault conceded, the entire trial was a fight over the value of a head injury that the defense called minor and that came with a light paper trail of treatment, and the jury accepted the plaintiff's account of it. As of September 2026, no appellate decision in the case has been published.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Times of Northwest Indiana, October 7, 2025 (Bob Kasarda): staff report of the $4.1 million Porter County verdict for Courtney and Jeffrey Faulhaber against B&W Cartage Company, the June 20, 2020 crash where Calumet Avenue meets U.S. 6, the injuries pleaded, the truck driver named in the suit, the week-long trial, and quotes from plaintiff attorney Todd Schafer
- 2.Indiana Jury Verdict Reporter blog, published 10-8-25: staffed verdict-reporter entry confirming the $4.1 million Porter County verdict, naming Todd S. Schafer and Timothy S. Schafer of Schafer & Schafer for the plaintiff and the three defense lawyers, naming Judge Jeffrey L. Thode, and reporting the contested mild brain injury versus permanent TBI proof and the rejection of the husband's consortium claim
More proven verdicts from Schafer & Schafer LLP
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Daniel Nelson, a farmer from Lake Village, Indiana, was driving his tractor north on U.S. 41 in Newton County on the morning of May 16, 2019, when a semitrailer that failed to slow down or change lanes struck it and threw him from the seat. He suffered head and brain injuries, a fractured pelvis and five broken ribs. Nelson and his wife, Diana, sued the trucking company, its customer and the driver, and after the case bounced between federal and state court on jurisdictional grounds, it was tried over seven days in Newton County Superior Court. On February 16, 2022, the jury deliberated about two and a half hours before awarding $25 million to Daniel Nelson and $5 million to Diana Nelson, a $30 million verdict that stood.
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