Stephen Wagner
VerifiedAbout Stephen Wagner
Stephen M. Wagner is a co-founder and partner of Wagner Reese, LLP, an Indiana personal injury firm based in Carmel. He has more than 30 years of experience handling civil litigation, civil rights, and work injury matters.
Wagner was named Indiana Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2006. He has been selected as an Indiana Super Lawyer in 2004 and continuously from 2006 through 2025, and has been listed among Super Lawyer magazine's Top 50 Personal Injury Attorneys from 2018 through 2024. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation (2021) and a member of The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 - Civil Plaintiff.
Wagner serves on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association and has authored numerous articles in national and local legal publications on civil litigation, civil rights violations, and work injuries.
Notable case results
A Richmond obstetrician ordered a contraction stress test instead of the recommended non-stress evaluation as a 34-week fetus showed distress, and a Wayne County jury held him responsible for the baby's death.
The mother of M. Shane Satterfield, 38, recovered $640,000 from Decatur County's liability insurer after he died of untreated alcohol withdrawal while serving a drunk-driving sentence at the county jail.
Roughly two dozen women sued after a Clark County jail officer sold cell keys to male detainees, and the county's insurer paid $328,000 to settle the federal suits that Wagner Reese helped bring.
Indianapolis paid $150,000 in 2013 to settle the federal civil rights suit of Brandon Johnson, a 15-year-old beaten by IMPD officers during his younger brother's 2010 arrest, with Stephen Wagner of Wagner Reese representing him.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
