Escalation: Residents sue NIPSCO in class action

A class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 21, 2026, accuses NIPSCO of failing to manage trees and vegetation near power lines, producing predictable, preventable outages over the past two years. The suit, brought by Allen Law Group, represents multiple plaintiffs and is in the discovery phase as it seeks additional members.

One named plaintiff, Jack Tipold, was midway through dental surgery when power failed; he was sent home without pain medication and could not fill prescriptions for two days. The complaint notes the most recent outage left hundreds of thousands without power and that counties such as LaPorte remained without service nearly 10 days after the storms.

NIPSCO rejected the complaint’s characterization and said it will vigorously defend itself, noting its vegetation-management spending has more than doubled since 2016 and that the program is overseen by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The lawsuit seeks accountability and changes to the company’s vegetation-management practices.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources