Nursing Home Neglect
Attorney

Nursing Home Abuse Statistics in the United States

• There are about five million elders who are abused each year.
• 1 in 10 elder Americans have experienced some form of elder abuse.
• 36% of nursing home residents have experienced at least one incident of physical abuse.
• 90% of nursing homes in the United States have reported having a shortage of nurse aides.
• Elderly Americans who have problems with dementia and disabilities are more likely to be vulnerable to nursing home abuse.

If you or a loved one have been a victim of nursing home abuse, contact our California and Nevada nursing home abuse attorneys today. Our attorneys have decades of experience representing nursing home abuse victims. We understand that this is very difficult to deal with, especially if you have a loved one who has been the victim of nursing home abuse. It is important to hire an experienced to nursing home abuse attorney that is well-versed in California and Nevada laws.

Examples of Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing home abuse can be physical, psychological, sexual, or even financial. It’s any willful act that involves injuring or harming a resident. It’s intentional conduct that causes the victim pain, suffering, and sometimes, even impairment. There are different categories of nursing home abuse. These different categories include:

• Psychological abuse accounts for 11.6% of nursing home abuse. Examples of this include instances of yelling and threats to intimidate the nursing home resident.
• Financial exploitation accounts for 6.8% of nursing home abuse. There are estimates that show that financial exploitation contributes to United States seniors losing around 3 billion to 37 billion each year.
• Physical abuse accounts for 2.6% of nursing home abuse.
• Sexual abuse accounts for 6.8% of nursing home abuse. This includes instances of rape, sexual assault, indecent exposure, or unwanted touching.
• Neglect accounts for 4.2% of nursing home abuse.

Abuse or Negligence?

It Is important to note that nursing home abuse and nursing home negligence are two different types of claims the plaintiff may make. Because of these different elements, it is important to hire an experienced nursing home abuse attorney to aggressively fight for your rights. Nursing home abuse is different from neglect in a sense that negligence is against the nursing home company. Negligence occurs when the nursing home fails to deliver the services necessary to maintain the quality of life of residents.

For example, negligence can occur if the home fails to protect its residents from harm. These can include falls, burglarized rooms, or residents wandering out of the compound. In this case, the nursing home could be liable for negligent security.

Either way, you should get in touch with a nursing home abuse and neglect attorney as soon as possible. This way, you can stop the abuse or neglect that’s harming your elderly loved one.

How Our Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys Can Help

One of the first things our California nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers will do is look for viable witnesses. Such witnesses may include other coherent residents of the facility.

The goal here is to find out if anyone has witnessed the unacceptable behavior of the nursing home staff. Our attorneys work together as much as possible to build up your claim to ensure that you are well compensated for your traumatic experience. Below are some steps our nursing home abuse attorneys take when trying to put together your clean:

1. Interview Family Members

Our nursing home abuse attorneys interview family members of the victim. Usually, family members could have a sense of what the victim went through, and how the victim may have been vulnerable to the abuse. Family members could also speak about the impact that it had on the victim.

2. Conduct Social Media Investigations

A 2015 study found at least 35% of cases of nursing home workers post abusive photos of residents. These images were downright dehumanizing, with some of them having violated the law. Our nursing home abuse attorneys will sift through these social media accounts. Your legal team will look for any evidence online that the nursing home has been abusive.

3. Track Down Former Employees of the Home

Many nursing homes in the United States have turnover rates ranging from 50% to 100%. This high quittance rate is a top culprit behind the poor quality of care in many elderly facilities. It’s also one of the reasons why understaffed homes have overworked employees.

Extreme fatigue, in turn, can make people behave in a manner that’s way out of line. Unfortunately, it could also make them quick-tempered, and thus, abusive. In many other cases, other employees can no longer tolerate their co-workers’ behaviors. As such, they quit.

 Our nursing home abuse attorneys will look at the employment history of the nursing home you want to sue. From here, we will reach out to previous employees and ask them about your loved one’s treatment.

4. Obtain Inspection and Survey Reports of the Home

Our skilled nursing home abuse attorneys will do this on your behalf to find evidence of abuse or neglect. As legal experts, we know if the nursing home violated state or federal laws.

For instance, under the Nursing Home Reform Act, facilities have a duty to prevent falls. They should have adequate fall prevention methods and devices in place. Failure to do so makes them liable for injuries resulting from slips, trips, and falls.

5. Acquire Health and Medical Records

Your loved one’s medical records may be hard to obtain on your own due to confidentiality laws. However, our experienced lawyers could do this for you to shed light on a nursing home’s unlawful conduct. For instance, the records may show evidence of medical malpractice or physician errors.

6. File an Administrative Complaint

Once our legal team has gathered enough evidence, we will help you file the complaint. You can also expect our nursing home abuse lawyers to curate a demand letter. After officiating this document, we will mail it to the facility.

7. File a Lawsuit

In the world of personal injury cases, there’s always a deadline for filing a lawsuit. These time limits are the statute of limitations. It’s the length of time given to plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the defendant.

Under California laws, the statute of limitations for personal injury is only two years. Nursing home abuse cases often fall under personal injuries. Either way, you need to file the lawsuit within this period; you can’t sue the nursing home after this.

However, it could be hard to determine when the statute’s clock has started ticking in your case. The nursing home can exploit this area of the law in their favor. If you put off filing the lawsuit, the defendant may make it seem that they didn’t cause the injuries. That’s why it’s vital to speak to our elder abuse lawyers as soon as you suspect nursing home abuse. This way, you’ll have a legal team who’ll unearth evidence proving your claim.