If your loved one has been injured at a nursing home or has suffered neglect then a lawsuit can provide you with compensation and closure to file a nursing home. In this blog, you will know about why file a nursing home neglect lawsuit.
There are different reasons to file a nursing home neglect lawsuit. Suing can help you afford medical care and the compensation from the lawsuit can cover the medical expenses of the victim. It can help with the costs related to disabilities and the long-term health issues. It can also help pay for mental health therapy for the neglect. It can also hold the facility accountable. The lawsuit helps start the healing process and then you are able to take some real action against the nursing home. Lawsuits may even be able to enact change. Suing the nursing home may force them to make changes to their policy so that another resident isn’t harmed in the same way. While a lawsuit can never make up for the abuse your loved one has suffered, it may help you feel that you have gained a sense of justice.
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Reasons to File a Lawsuit Against the Nursing Home
There are five common reasons why you may need to file a lawsuit.
Unsanitary or Hazardous Conditions: Many seniors need some help to keep living areas clean or with personal hygiene and these duties are on the caregivers and nursing home staff. If staff isn’t keeping residents and the facilities clean then this can lead to bad health and the potential for injury or disease.
Neglectful Hiring Practices: A nursing home may be understaffed or staffed with employees that aren’t skilled or have a history of abusive or criminal behavior. These bad hiring practices can lead to exhausted and stressed caretakers and expose residents to abuse and harm because of these dangerous employees.
No Supervision: An effect of unskilled or understaffed caretakers is that the residents don’t get proper supervision. The biggest risk of not having supervision is the potential for falls. Falls are one of the most preventable causes of an injury in a nursing home. Residents who have the right supervision can have lives with better health outcomes and are more fulfilled.
Financial Exploitation: Many nursing homes have been caught taking advantage of residents by coercing residents into signing documents without understanding, cashing checks without permission, or just outright stealing. Residents may often not even know about the abuse, which means these crimes can go on for years without anyone noticing.
Substandard Medical Treatment: Any nursing home professional is required to meet a standard of care, even if the standard is just knowing when to contact a physician or arrange for the care at an urgent care center or hospital. If the staff fails to uphold this standard then they might be liable for the damages that happen.
Signs of Nursing Home Abuse
Before you can begin a lawsuit, you need to know about the potential signs of abuse so you are able to identify them. Abuse can take on many forms. Elders in nursing homes can fall victim to physical neglect and abuse, mental or emotional abuse, or financial abuse. There are many different factors that range from medical conditions to financial dependence that can contribute to the chance that someone may be a victim to nursing home abuse. When you do visit your loved ones, it’s important to keep an eye out for signs of abuse. These signs include avoidance tactics, fear, poor eating habits and weight loss, torn clothing, broken or fractured bones, poor hygiene, or burns, cuts, and bruises. If it is appropriate, you may want to monitor your loved one’s money and funds to ensure that these funds are being spent in the right ways and that large sums of money aren’t just going missing.
When to File a Lawsuit
You can sue for nursing home neglect as soon as possible if your loved one has suffered. It can be helpful to file a claim sooner instead of later since the statute of limitations can limit the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit.
In order to sue a nursing home and prove that neglect occurred, an attorney will need to show how the staff members failed to care for your loved one and how this failure caused harm and damages. The process can be made easier with the help of an experienced attorney that have handled other nursing home cases. How much you can sue for will depend on specific factors in your case, but past lawsuits have been awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars.
