Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer in Gainesville

During a free case evaluation and a subsequent detailed investigation, the personal injury attorney that you hire from Morgan and Morgan determines the cause of the nursing home abuse suffered by a loved one. Learning about the cause of nursing home abuse helps your lawyer build a strong enough case to win a favorable legal judgment.

Lack of Workers

An understaffed nursing home requires workers to double, even triple up on job responsibilities. The result is cutting corners to fit every task into an incredibly hectic workday. Residents might receive less than adequate care because of the worker shortage. Lack of employees also becomes an issue because busy employees often miss the signs of nursing home abuse.

Inadequate Screening

If a nursing home experiences an acute labor shortage, human resources might let a few things slide when recruiting more workers. A nursing home that does run a criminal background check on every job candidate is setting itself up for resolving abuse charges. Running a credit check also is a good idea because some forms of nursing home abuse involve financial scams perpetrated against vulnerable residents.

Inferior Training

Another result of an understaffed nursing home is a poorly implemented training program. New employees require extensive training to understand how to interact with highly dependent residents, as well as gain a thorough understanding of applying different care methods. Training should be ongoing since each patient requires a unique set of care guidelines.

Without much contact with a loved one living in a nursing home, you might have trouble detecting the signs of abuse. The workers at the nursing home where your loved one lives should receive training that helps them discover abuse, but sometimes, nursing home workers do not receive proper training and/or are too busy to notice the signs of abuse.

Signs of Physical Abuse

The development of bed sores and pressure ulcers represents one of the most common signs of nursing home abuse. Both signs indicate inadequate care, from failing to remove dirty sheets to not providing a resident with enough opportunities to move around the home. A broken bone is another common sign of nursing home abuse, but you have to consider the likelihood that an accident such as a slip and fall caused a fractured bone. Chronic fatigue, visible bruising, and obvious malnutrition are three more common signs of nursing home abuse.

Signs of Psychological Abuse

Although more difficult to detect than the physical signs of nursing home abuse, the signs of psychological abuse are nonetheless just as serious. Trauma, depression, and anxiety indicate mistreatment, as do sudden bursts of anger and overly aggressive, even violent behavior. The psychological signs of nursing home abuse frequently develop after a loved one has moved into a nursing home. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms represent the most serious signs of psychological abuse.

Signs of Financial Abuse

Although recognizing the signs of physical and psychological nursing home abuse can prevent future acts of abuse, you also should focus on the potential of a nursing home worker taking advantage of a loved one’s condition to swindle money. If you notice the opening of new bank or credit card accounts, speak with one of the nursing home abuse attorneys in Gainesville from Morgan and Morgan. Strange financial transactions, as well as changes made to the power of attorney, might indicate financial abuse that occurs at a nursing home.

Before you report a nursing home to the State of Florida and file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages, you have to determine what type of nursing home abuse lawsuit you should file. Working with one of the highly-rated personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan ensures you file the right type of nursing home abuse lawsuit.

Abuse

Physical and psychological abuse are the two most common types of lawsuits filed against nursing homes. From pushing a resident to threatening to withhold things a resident loves to do, filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit requires the gathering of persuasive medical and physical evidence to win a favorable legal judgment.

Exploitation

Exploitation does not leave any physical or psychological scars, but it can do just as much damage to an elderly resident. The most common type of exploitation lawsuit involves embezzling funds from a vulnerable resident. Embezzlement can come in the form of pyramid schemes or stealing money directly out of a resident’s bank account.

Medical Malpractice

Most nursing home residents receive some type of medical care while living at a nursing home. Medical services can include routine physical examinations, as well as treating a physical ailment. Medical malpractice unfolds when a nursing home resident receives medical care that causes the resident harm. Examples of medical malpractice at nursing homes include prescribing the wrong medication and failing to diagnose a serious medical condition.

Neglect

The failure to provide the most basic services to a resident of a nursing home is considered the legal impetus for filing a neglect lawsuit. Neglect can include not delivering proper hygiene care and not giving a resident enough exercise. Nursing homes have a duty of care to prevent residents from getting hurt. Neglecting to provide the most fundamental services violates the duty of care doctrine.

If you discover a loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse, you should immediately reach out to one of the nursing home abuse attorneys in Gainesville from Morgan and Morgan. Before our team of personal injury lawyers addresses the legal ramification of nursing home abuse, we help you file a report with the Florida Department of Health (DOH) by submitting your information at the Florida Health Care Complaint Portal. The Florida DOH does not accept complaints about nursing homes over the phone.

Florida law requires the DOH to protect your identity to prevent retaliation against a loved one living in a nursing home. If your case is relatively complex, the Florida DOH might take a few months to investigate your complaint. However, partnering with a state-licensed personal injury lawyer can speed up the investigation. After filing a complaint with the Florida DOH, your attorney begins the process of filing a civil lawsuit against the nursing home.

As a type of personal injury case, you might expect the statute of limitations to be the same for filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit as it is for other types of personal injury lawsuits. However, the statute of limitations for filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit is two years, which is two years shorter than the four years granted to file other types of personal injury lawsuits. The complexity of investigating and then litigating a nursing home abuse case requires you to act with a sense of urgency.

The clock starts ticking on a nursing home abuse lawsuit on the date when a loved one discovered the abuse or should have discovered the abuse. This can cause problems for cases of psychological abuse since most signs of psychological abuse are difficult to notice. Working with one of the nursing home abuse attorneys at Morgan and Morgan establishes a date when the clock starts ticking on the filing of a civil lawsuit.

If you fail to meet the two-year statute of limitations for filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit, you can expect the court clerk processing your lawsuit to remove the lawsuit from the court docket. The attorney representing the nursing home informs the court clerk about the failure to file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations.

The goal of the personal injury attorneys assigned to your case is to win a favorable legal judgment for monetary damages. Nursing home abuse cases do much more than cause harm to a resident of an assisted care facility. Close friends and family members also can suffer from emotional trauma because of the harm caused to a loved one.

Economic Damages

The medical care required to diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate physical injuries and emotional scars can cost a family thousands of dollars. Your family has the right to recover the financial losses caused by paying for the medical care of a loved one. The types of medical expenses include diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. You also have the right to recover the costs associated with prescription medications and the use of an assistive device such as a cane or crutches.

Non-Economic Damages

Here is where calculating the value of monetary damages becomes complicated. Non-economic damages do not produce a price tag, but the costs associated with pain and suffering can be incredibly high for a nursing home abuse lawsuit. The emotional toll placed on your family leaves behind many bad memories that never fade. Loss of consortium with a loved one is another type of non-economic damages. One of the nursing home abuse attorneys at Morgan and Morgan calculates a fair value for non-economic damages involving the use of a formula that includes the value of economic damages.

Punitive Damages

The value of punitive damages awarded by a judge depends on whether the acts of abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation were intentional or unintentional. Judges typically award more punitive damages for intentional nursing home abuse cases. The primary reason for awarding punitive damages is to deter a nursing home from committing future acts of abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation. It also sends a strong message to other nursing homes to prevent acts of nursing home abuse from occurring at their facilities.

Finding out a loved one has endured nursing home abuse triggers a wide variety of strong, negative emotions. The key is to remain mentally and emotionally grounded by hiring one of the nursing home abuse attorneys in Gainesville from Morgan and Morgan. Our large team of personal injury lawyers handles all types of personal injury cases, including having a dedicated team of attorneys to litigate nursing home abuse lawsuits.

Schedule a free case evaluation today to take the steps necessary to protect a loved one against nursing home abuse.