Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys

in West Palm Beach, Florida

Legal Claims Against Nursing Homes

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Nursing Home Injuries - An Overview

Negligence in the Nursing Home Setting

What Your Rights Are as a Resident of a Nursing Home

Special Considerations in Proving Damages in Cases Involving the Elderly

Statutory Protection of Older Persons

Frequently Asked Questions about Nursing Home Injuries

Nursing Home Injuries Resource Links

Nursing Home Injuries Contact Form

Our elders have contributed so much to society over their long lifetimes and should be allowed to finish their lives free from distress or pain caused by other people’s abuse or carelessness. There are several known factors which give rise to abuse of nursing home residents, such as:
Poorly trained staff
Understaffing
Staff with violence in their history
Isolation of residents
Resident reluctance to report abuse for fear of retaliation, or out of embarrassment

One of the first challenges in legal representation of the elderly is overcoming the tendency to discount what the elderly say. This tendency is found among physicians and insurance adjusters, who will often claim that the older person is “just complaining”, or that their mental clarity is failing. On the bright side, insurance adjusters and jurors can usually be convinced by the work of a thorough nursing home negligence attorney to properly compensate injured elderly people.

How Nursing Homes Can be Held Responsible for Resident Injury
A nursing home can be held liable based on:
Negligence
Violations of “Residents’ Rights” under florida law
Abuse
False imprisonment
Violations of criminal statutes
Licensing violations
Facility maintenance violations
General operation violations

There are three types of proceedings that could be pursued for any neglect, abuse, or exploitation of an elderly person, and they are (a) An investigation by an adult protective services agency; (b) a civil suit for damages; and (c) criminal prosecution. Each proceeding has its own goal. The goal of an investigation would be to give immediate relief to that resident, and to prevent any future harm.

At the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, we can pursue a civil suit. If you would like to have a free consultation, please contact us.

1. Civil Action Against a Nursing Home

The goal of this proceeding is to obtain compensation for the resident’s damages. The action can be based on negligence or violation of Florida law in:
Personal supervision and care of the resident
Hiring
Maintenance of the premises
Purchasing or maintenance of equipment
Improper medical care of the resident

Assault and Battery
Assault does not necessarily mean a physical beating. It means a threat of force along with apparent ability to carry it out. Battery also doesn’t necessarily mean a physical attack, but includes any harmful or offensive contact done intentionally. A resident who has been injured could bring a claim of assault or battery, but this is less often done that negligence claims.
A civil action would have to prove that (a) the nursing home or its employees violated the duty of care they owed to the resident; (b) the resident was hurt by this violation of duty; and (c) the conduct of the nursing home or its employees caused the resident’s injury or death.

Proving Duty of Care and its Violation. The duty of care would need to be established first, as a baseline for comparing the actual behavior of the nursing home or its employees. It would usually have to be established by expert witnesses, who would testify as to what is the proper practice, procedure, or treatment in the given situation.

Statutory Standard of Care
Florida has laws which establish the minimum standards of care for private nursing homes. These can often be helpful. But even if the nursing home complied with these standards, it can still be held responsible for a resident’s injury. Investigating this issue is best done by an experienced nursing home negligence attorney.

Causation
Because nursing home residents are typically elderly and have some sort of ill health, the issue often comes up of whether the harm would have happened anyway. It might have happened as a result of pre-existing ill health or advanced age, or even of medical complications or a declining mental condition. This defense will often be advanced by a defending attorney.
The prosecuting attorney can reply that a nursing home accepts its residents as they come, ill-health, advanced age, and all. Therefore being aware of those conditions, it is still liable for not considering them in its treatment of the resident. There is a fiduciary relationship between a nursing home and its residents. The residents are regarded as invitees of the nursing home, therefore being entitled to safe premises and proper medical care.
The nursing home’s defending attorney will usually assert defenses such as comparative negligence on the part of the resident.

Breach of Contract
When a new resident is accepted, the nursing home draws up a contract with that resident, which sets out all the services to be provided, and their cost. If a prosecuting attorney can show that the nursing home has violated this contract, he can have it held liable on the basis of breach of contract. Even if the contract binds the nursing home only to “reasonably necessary” services for the resident’s well-being, it could still be found negligent if it has failed to meet this standard.

At the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, we have numerous contacts in the medical world and can use medical experts to examine your records. Then we can start to gather more information and build your case. Our office serves the entire Southern Florida area.

Free Consultation • No Recovery/No Attorney's Fee • Handicapped Accessible

West Palm Beach, Florida, nursing home negligence attorney Craig Goldenfarb represents clients throughout South Florida, including the cities of Palm Springs, Stuart, and Fort Pierce, and residents of Palm Beach County, Martin County, and St. Lucie County. Our office in West Palm Beach, Florida, is located a quarter mile west of I-95 on Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., behind Chick-Fil-A in the IKON Building.