When an elderly person cannot rely on themselves anymore, they go to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They rely on staff to take care of them. But what if the staff refuses to do so, instead implementing or enabling neglect or abusive behavior?
If you feel your loved one has suffered abuse in a Huntington nursing home, you have options to help them. Call Morelli Law Firm. One of our nursing home abuse attorneys in Huntington can investigate your case and sue the home. You can stop the abuse and help your loved one get the care they need.
How Our Law Firm Can Assist You
When you hire Morelli Law, we will assist you and your loved one with two goals in mind. The first is to help you win compensation. The second is to get the attention of regulators about the problem. Some of the tasks we do to accomplish this include:
- Getting what evidence we can on our own
- Calling in ombudsmen and other regulators to investigate the abuse
- Identifying who is responsible for the abuse and their insurers
- Calculating the damages done to your loved one and presenting the claim
- Negotiating for the full value of your claim
- Taking your case to court should it prove necessary
- Keep you and your loved one informed on what’s happening in your case
- Answering all your legal questions
Nursing home abuse cases can be quite sensitive, especially if the nursing home or an abuser tries to hide evidence of their crimes. Call 911 if you notice things are getting worse with your loved one. Paramedics have the authority to take your loved one to a hospital for safety.
Types of Nursing Home Abuse
The abuse a resident can experience in a nursing home ranges across all categories. The most common type of abuse is neglect. Whether from a lack of staffing, poor management, or active malice, neglecting the needs of residents demeans them and can lead to serious health risks.
Verbal, mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse are other types of nursing home abuse. You can still file a claim even if the abuse is coming from another resident. Nursing homes may share liability anyway since they have a duty of care toward all residents in the home.
Financial abuse is also a major problem in nursing homes. Be wary of any changes to your loved one’s financial and insurance status. Look for new policies, changes in beneficiaries, and changes in financial power of attorney. Someone could be trying to steal the victim’s money.
Liability for Nursing Home Abuse
There can be multiple liable parties in your nursing home abuse case, but to win your claim, there are four things to prove: duty, breach, causation, and damages. Duty is the easiest. Owners and staff of nursing homes have an automatic duty of care towards their residents.
A breach of duty happens when abuse or neglect exposes someone else to danger. A breach alone will get the attention of regulators that there’s a problem. If we can prove that breach of neglect or abuse caused injury to a victim, that’s causation.
From there, it’s a matter of calculating up the ways the victim has suffered damages. This could be through something like a medical bill, but there are also non-economic damages that may apply.
Any party that breaches duty and causes an injury to a victim shares in the liability and can be sued in your case. Your Huntington nursing home abuse attorney can investigate the circumstances in your case to determine liability.
Statute of Limitations in Nursing Home Abuse Cases
The resident has three years from the date of the last abuse incident to start their case before the statute of limitations applies. This is a deadline to start a personal injury case, and you don’t want to go beyond it. You will lose the right to have your case heard in court.
This applies to residents in New York only. Each state has different deadlines. If you live in New York and your loved one in another state, our lawyers can see which state’s laws apply. Once you have a lawyer working on the case, they can pause the clock (toll the statute).
Contact Our Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers
Reporting nursing home abuse can save the life of the victim and others in the nursing home, plus help your loved one get compensation. That compensation can cover medical bills and move the victim to a better facility.
Our nursing home abuse lawyers in Huntington are ready to assist you. To get started with the investigation, call us at the number on your screen. If you prefer, you can reach us via email through our online contact form. We will schedule a free consultation about your situation.
Finally, if you discover serious injury or a life-threatening situation, your first call should be to 911. Once your loved one is safely away from the home, call Morelli Law Firm immediately for further advice.
