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A nursing home abuse lawsuit has been remanded for a new trial – but solely on the personal injury claim, not the wrongful death claim – by the West Virginia Supreme Court. 

The court ruled the lower court erred in failing to apply certain tolling provisions and discovery rules that would have allowed her to present evidence central to her case.

In Williams v. CMO Mgmt., the patient in question was an Alzheimer’s sufferer who resided at defendant facility for a decade, from June 2001 to June 2011. Following his death in early July 2011, plaintiff, as representative of decedent’s estate, filed a lawsuit alleging personal injury and wrongful death as a result of neglect and abuse patient suffered while a patient at facility. Plaintiff also sought damages in connection with systemic issues at the nursing home related to understaffing, poor allocation of resources and budgeting and problems with certain policies and procedures. She wanted to recover for injuries her father had sustained from 2009 until his death.

At all times relevant, decedent was mentally incompetent.  Continue reading →

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Courts generally enforce the strong federal policy that favors arbitration where such an agreement exists. However, that doesn’t mean a court will automatically dismiss a case that involves an arbitration clause in favor of that alternative dispute resolution. This is increasingly true in nursing home abuse cases, in which Florida judges are carefully scrutinizing arbitration clauses. 

One of the elements they consider is whether the party has relinquished rights to arbitrate.

This was the issue in the recent case of Johnson v. Heritage Healthcare, before the South Carolina Supreme Court. Court records show decedent, within six months of being admitted as a patient at defendant nursing home facility, she suffered severe pressure ulcers and a leg amputation that ultimately led to her death. The legal process to hold the facility accountable has been an arduous one, and like so many nursing home abuse cases, involved an arbitration agreement. The question before the state supreme court was whether defendant waived its right to arbitrate.  Continue reading →

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A resident at an Illinois nursing home reportedly admitted to fire officials and police that she intentionally set a fire at the facility because she was, “tired of the nursing staff trying to boss her around.”

That account is according to TV-KSDK, which reported the woman resided in the independent living section of the nursing home. She insisted she did not intend to hurt anyone, and thankfully no one was injured. The fire was set in two empty rooms. Ten patients had to be evacuated and smoke and water damage was sustained in a total of 13 rooms.

It’s unclear from the report how exactly she started the fire. While she was charged with one felony count of aggravated arson, suggesting that officers determined not only did she have willful intent but was mentally competent, the case sets off a few red flags for our nursing home abuse lawyers. Continue reading →

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Abuse of the elderly in Florida is on the rise, according to a recent investigation by the Orlando Sentinel. 

Although the news outlet did not offer a breakdown of whether the abuse suffered occurred in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living centers, those too were included in the overall totals.

The newspaper noted there is no federal agency that keeps a detailed list of how many elderly people are abused and neglected, there are dozens of government agencies and social service providers that do follow what happens at both the state and local levels.  Continue reading →

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A jury in Colorado has awarded the family of a former patient $5.5 million in damages – which included $5 million in punitive damages – following the death of a patient in 2013, just six months after she was admitted. 

Attorneys who represented her family announced in a press release the record-setting award in that county, which was based on the fact that her death was reportedly preceded by months of repeated abuse and neglect. The damage award was imposed against both defendants, the nursing home itself and its corporate parent, Life Care Centers of America, Inc. In Florida, there are more than two dozen nursing homes owned by this same corporation, including two in Orlando and one in West Palm Beach.

The press release asserted this was a company that, like so many others, put profits ahead of patient care. There with issues with poor care, gaps in charting and staffing shortages – all of which resulted in a fatal outcome for decedent, plaintiff’s mother. Continue reading →

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Nursing home arbitration agreements – which have become mandatory for admission for many facilities across the nation – restrict patients’ access to the court system in the event of disputes arising as a result of poor care or criminal acts. They are a serious problem, as they serve to curtail the damage awards patients and their loved ones might otherwise receive.

Now, they are a topic of discussion among Congressional leaders in the House of Representatives. In a recent session, a number of Democratic leaders implored their colleagues for a solution that would overhaul this private system of justice that often favors the nursing home. The problem is arbitrators generally consider the nursing home their clients.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), asked his colleagues to pass a bill he had recently introduced that would prohibit firms from pushing civil rights lawsuits (including nursing home abuse lawsuits, employment discrimination lawsuits and others) into an arbitration forum. Johnson said arbitration clauses are especially damaging for women, minorities and vulnerable populations, such as those in nursing homes.  Continue reading →

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Nursing home arbitration agreements have become the new normal anytime a patient is admitted to a facility. These agreements are intended to limit the patient’s or family’s access to courts for resolution of disputes, such as those that arise as a result of nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect or nursing home negligence. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce or eliminate the complainant’s ability to collect damages from the nursing home. Arbitration agreements and arbitrators tend to be far more friendly to the business than the individual.

Although courts will uphold these agreements as they would any other contract, there is an emerging legal trend that involves finding these agreements either invalid or against public policy. There are a number of arguments that could be effective. One is to cite that the person who signed the document on the patient’s behalf had no legal authority to do so. Another, which emerged recently with the case of Estate of Novosett v. Arc Villages II, before Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeal in March 2016, was to argue the damage caps and elimination of punitive damages were against public policy and could not be severed from the rest of the agreement. The 5th DCA sided with the plaintiff in that case.

And that brings us to the most recent Florida nursing home arbitration agreement decision, which was also handed down by the 5th DCA in Estate of Reinshagen v. WRYP ALF LLC. Continue reading →

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Anonymous complaints of nursing home abuse or neglect would be banned under a proposed law being mulled by lawmakers in Illinois.

The bill, unsurprisingly supported by nursing home lobbyists, would prohibit anonymity, purportedly to slash the number of false complaints reportedly made to “Harass nursing homes.”

Rep. Mike Unes, sponsor of the bill, insists he is advocating for the most vulnerable because he wants to empower investigators to “help them get to the root of the problem.” By requiring people to leave their name and contact information if they wish to have a complaint investigated, Unes believes more legitimate complaints will be make it through the investigative phase. Continue reading →

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Authorities are investigating the death of an elderly Florida nursing home resident who may have died of possible sun exposure after he was reportedly left outdoors for an extended period of time. 

According to Health News Florida, first responders in Pinellas Park were called to a nursing home to treat a 65-year-old man who had sustained second-degree burns on his body. His abdomen was reportedly covered with blisters. Paramedics who arrived noted the man was severely dehydrated. Soon after, he went into cardiac arrest and died.

Detectives are trying to ascertain why the man was outside, how long he was outside for, whether he was being supervised and whether he may have been a victim of nursing home abuse and negligence.  Continue reading →

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Florida nursing homes say state lawmakers need to break them off a larger piece of the taxpayer pie, saying legislators should restore the automatic 1 percent increase in Medicaid payments they had received up until 2011. That was the year state lawmakers halted the increase, citing budget concerns. 

But now, nursing homes say that annual increase should be restored. It would mean about $13 million more from the state every year – divided up among Florida’s 683 nursing homes – plus an additional $20.2 million from the federal government. Although most of the facilities concede they haven’t suffered substantially as a result of the cuts, they certainly could use the money to combat under-staffing and other issues that pose potential risks to nursing home residents.

Lawmakers are reticent to commit to any such change. Elder safety advocates who raise awareness about nursing home abuse and neglect say any such increase should be merit-based, denied to nursing homes that consistently fall short of providing quality care for patients.  Continue reading →

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