Michael Wayne Phelps

Michael “Mike” Phelps is a personal injury and wrongful death litigation attorney at Hankey Marks & Crider, representing clients with catastrophic injuries and the families of victims of wrongful death negligence in the fields of general personal injury, interstate trucking, defective products, and medical malpractice. Mike has tried well over 100 jury trials as lead counsel and co-counsel in both State and Federal Courts across Indiana. Some of Mike’s notable verdicts include a wrongful death verdict of $157,000,000; auto negligence verdicts of $26,000,000, $5,600,000, $3,000,000 and $1,250,000; a products liability verdict of $8,000,000; and recent slip-and-fall verdicts of $4,000,000 and $800,000. These represent just a small sampling of cases Mike has litigated over the course of his career. Of particular note, he was lead counsel at trial and argued the seminal cases of Stanley v. Walker, Humphrey v. U.S. Xpress Trucking and Reese v. Tyson Fresh Meats before the Indiana Supreme Court. Mike has also handled dozens of other reported appellate cases.

Mike is a graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington, with degrees in Sociology and Political Science. He graduated from law school in 1998 and earned his J.D., with honors, in only 2 ½ years from The Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.

Prior to joining Hankey Marks & Crider in 2022, Mike’s legal career spanned 24 years in the personal injury and wrongful death arenas. He began his legal career in 1998 defending various types of negligence and product liability cases until he switched sides in 2005. A heart wrenching story about Mike “switching sides” was published in The Indiana Lawyer in 2011. He was also featured in a 2009 Forbes article called “Legal Movers and Shakers,” following a successful trial in Lafayette involving a tragic, avoidable incident where a man was killed by a needlessly defective product. Mike has also appeared on numerous local news stations, and even on Good Morning America, regarding his cases.

Mike has presented dozens of topics at many legal seminars, ranging from voir dire, closing arguments, calculating damages and the trial process. For the past 9 years, he has presented the torts section at the Annual Indiana Law Survey, presented by the Indiana Supreme Court and Indiana Courts of Appeals.

Mike is active in the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association as a Sustaining Member and is on their Board of Directors, ITLA College of Fellows, the American Association for Justice, and The Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forums. Mike has been voted an Indianapolis Monthly Super Lawyer every year since 2012.

Mike was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana, and was a three-sport athlete growing up. Mike and his wife Tina, of 27 years, are avid dog lovers, are active in the ASPCA, and they love to travel. Mike is also a professional poker player, playing in various tournaments in Las Vegas annually and occasionally the World Series of Poker, calendar permitting.