How We File Your Nursing Home Lawsuit
Filing a Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit - What is Required?
When someone is a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, they have the right to file a suit to hold those responsible for the damages fully accountable for their neglect and abuse.
Filing a Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit seeking Damages
Contents
What Are The Elements to File Suit?
Chapter #33: Filing Suit for Nursing Home Abuse
Chapter #34: What is the Duty of Care to a Resident of a Nursing Home or Assisted Living Facility (ALF)?
Proving Damages in Nursing Home Abuse
Chapter #35: How Do We Prove Damages in a Nursing Home or Assisted Living Facility Abuse or Neglect Case?
What Are The Elements To File Suit?
Chapter #33: Filing Suit for Nursing Home Abuse
Generally, under Florida or Georgia law, to hold a nursing home liable for negligence that did not cause death, for a survival claim, or for a wrongful death claim, the plaintiff needs to be able to prove the following elements:
1) The defendant nursing home owed a duty of care to the resident.
2) The defendant nursing home breached their duty of care to the resident.
3) The breach of the duty of care to the resident was the legal and proximate cause of loss, injury, and/or death and damages to the resident.
4) The resident sustained loss, injury, and/or death and damages as a result of the breach of duty.
Under Florida Statute Chapter § 400, before a lawsuit can be filed for nursing home negligence and abuse, MattLaw® must serve a pre-suit notice on each of the prospective defendants by certified mail.
In the pre-suit notice we must tell the defendant:
- What rights we believe have been violated
- The negligence that was allowed to happen
- The negligence caused the injury
- The injuries or damages being claimed
As your attorney, we must also certify that a “reasonable investigation” has been done resulting in a good faith belief that grounds exist for an action against each prospective defendant that we intend on suing.
This results in a 75 day tolling period in which each of the defendants can perform limited discovery about the claim. After the 75 days, we can file suit and begin the normal discovery steps and move toward a trial.
Under Georgia law, no pre-suit notice is required to sue. However, when filing suit, we are required to attach to the lawsuit an affidavit from a qualified nurse expert setting out one or more of the deviations from the Standard of Care, and the factual grounds to support our contentions of negligence by the nursing home defendant. See Official Code of Georgia §9-11-9.1.
Nursing home lawsuits require investigations to be done before filing suit.
Before filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit, we want to see the medical records of our injured client, we want to look at the photographs of any damages, and we want to confirm who violated their rights. Once we have enough information, we can have our nursing home experts review the records and give us their experts opinions regarding the nursing home neglect and abuse.
Once we have this information, we are ready to take the next steps to seek justice for the neglect and abuse.
Who Should Care?
Chapter #34: What is the Duty of Care to a Resident of a Nursing Home or Assisted Living Facility (ALF)?
The general definition of duty of care is:
Taking reasonable measures to ensure residents’ wellbeing by providing proper food, shelter, hygiene and medical care, including administering medications and proper nutrition,preventing injuries, and protecting them.
What is a breach of the duty of care to a nursing home resident?
When a nursing home or assisted living facility fails to provide the protections and prevention of injuries, losses, or other damages to their resident, they may have breached their standard of care to the resident.
What is the “proximate cause of damages”?
When the nursing home or assisted living facility breaches their duty of care to the resident, and the breach is the legal cause of loss, injury, and/or death and damages to the resident, and the loss injury or death is in the realm of predictable or expected outcomes from the breach, then it can be said the breach caused the damages.
Nursing homes should care enough to provide high quality care.
Nursing homes are paid a lot of money to provide high quality care to its residents. When a nursing home fails to provide basic needs and care, and this failure causes pain, loss, damages and/or injuries, the nursing home must be held accountable.
The government can only do so much, but a private lawyer suing for the damages can do a great deal to improve the conditions in a nursing home.
Proving Damages in Nursing Home Abuse
Chapter #35: How do we prove damages in a nursing home or assisted living facility abuse or neglect case?
Damages in a nursing home case are usually graphic, emotional, and rather obvious. Under the law, we have a duty to fully understand all of the damages and present them in a professional manner.
Despite the obvious nature of nursing home damages, the defense is usually one of denial that the defendant did anything wrong, and if they did, their negligence or abuse was not the cause of the damages.
The damages stemming from nursing home abuse may be proven by any of the following:
- Eyewitness testimony
- Photographs of injuries
- Medical records
- Dental records
- Psychological or mental health records
- Surveillance videos
- Criminal records of abuse
- Census reports of staffing and resident needs
- Former employees
- Other residents or visitors
- Financial records
- Expert witnesses
- State and Federal reports
- Admissions and statements by the defendants
- Prior or other similar instances of abuse to other residents
- Criminal convictions of employees or staff
- Police investigations and reports
We show the damages in a nursing home or assisted living facility abuse or neglect case with hard evidence.
In nursing homes, caregivers and facility administrators must ensure the safety and comfort of all their residents at all times.
If anyone violates their duty of care, causing injury, harm, or death, they may be held responsible for the damages caused by their negligence or abuses.
We show damages in nursing home abuse cases in many ways, from the photographs to testimony of experts.
At MattLaw®, we drill down into the records and talk to witnesses to be able to tell the story of our client. We take the time to learn and understand how our clients trusted their healthcare givers and were betrayed.
If you are a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, or if you suspect that your loved one is or was the victim of nursing home abuse and neglect, we would like to hear your story. Call MattLaw® at (813) 222-2222 to speak to a nursing home abuse lawyer. Our experienced and dedicated nursing home abuse attorneys are ready to take legal action and help fight for the justice you deserve.
Our Elders Have a Right to Dignity!
Chapter #36: Why Do Nursing Home Abuse Cases Occur?
Nursing home care is woven into the fabric of our culture of caring for the elderly.
With 1.3 million Americans currently residing in nursing homes—more than half of whom are over the age of 85—nursing home residents are some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
Some nursing home residents are simply unable to fully communicate, making it difficult to detect or report abuse or neglect when it occurs.
In some cases, residents are physically and/or mentally impaired and simply have no family members or anyone else available to help advocate for them when they are the victims of abuse or neglect.
In addition, while some nursing homes provide a valuable service to the sick and aged, other nursing homes prioritize profit over the well-being of their residents. They do this through inadequate staffing and care, insufficient training, and/or poorly maintained facilities. Failure to train and supervise employees, or a failure to adequately staff or maintain a safe facility, puts residents at risk. Also putting residents at risk is the failure to properly screen job applicants for a criminal history or for committing past instances of abuse or neglect at other facilities.
When nursing homes allow inadequate staffing, they cause many of the common injuries that occur at nursing homes mentioned above, including medication mix-ups, dehydration, malnutrition, bone-breaking falls, and death.
Nursing home abuse also strips dignity away from nursing home residents.
Our Family Members Have A Right To Dignified Treatment in the Final Years of Their Life.
At MattLaw®, we stand committed to helping you and your loved ones understand your legal rights regarding nursing home abuse and we are prepared to help you or your loved ones seek damages for any harm, abuse, mistreatment and/or neglect sustained in nursing homes.
If you suspect your loved one is being abused at their nursing home, contact the nursing home abuse lawyers at MattLaw® today.
