Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys

in West Palm Beach, Florida

Special Considerations in Proving Damages in Cases Involving the Elderly

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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

Cases which involve the elderly are different in some respects from other cases. The elderly plaintiff might be unable to leave the nursing home to appear in court. They might be poor witnesses for themselves due to memory lapses or difficulty in speaking. So the plaintiff’s nursing home negligence attorney must be very diligent in gathering information about all the conditions surrounding the injury.

With detailed and comprehensive information about how the nursing home resident was injured, the plaintiff’s attorney can potentially win compensation for many aspects and consequences of that injury.

Physical and Mental Suffering
Monetary damages can be won for a nursing home resident’s pain, suffering, disfigurement and reduced enjoyment of life; or if the resident died, for those things in his or her survivors’ lives.

Examples of mental suffering
Fear of the results of an injury while waiting for help
Fear between when the resident realized injury was likely to happen and when it did happen
Fear after the injury happened about what else could have happened
Anxiety about one’s present and future physical health
Fear of being increasingly vulnerable to future injury
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Pain involved with the injury or physical condition

Disfigurement
Advancing age does not abolish the desire to look one’s best. If an elderly person is disfigured by someone’s negligence, they are entitled to appropriate monetary damages, just as a younger person might be. Examples of disfigurement would be amputation, scarring or hair loss.

Loss of enjoyment of life
If somebody’s negligence impairs a person’s ability to live a full life, compensation could be obtained. For an older person, loss of enjoyment of life could be things like inability to walk or exercise, or to play with grandchildren, or communicate meaningfully with other people.

Shortened life expectancy
In general, a court will not recognize shortened life expectancy as being an injury in itself, but it will consider it as part of the overall injury. A shorter life means a certain mental suffering in knowing that it will be cut short, and it decreases earning capacity. An interesting aspect of this issue is that people are living longer as medicine becomes more sophisticated and effective and as living conditions have improved. So the existing life expectancy tables can be seen as inaccurate. If you have looked after yourself well, not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, exercising and eating well, your nursing home negligence attorney might argue that you’re entitled to a greater amount of damages because of your longer life expectancy.

Punitive Damages
If it is shown that a nursing home has been malicious or reckless, punitive damages can be awarded.

Because of the greater age, poorer health and relatively short life expectancy of a nursing home resident, some damages are not awarded, or are reduced. Examples are:
Future pain and suffering
Lost earning capacity
Future medical costs

Thus an award against a nursing home is usually made up of compensation for mental anguish, medical costs, pain and suffering of the injured resident, and the loss of affection and companionship of the surviving family members.

Structured Settlements
A structured settlement consists of periodic payments in the future, rather than a lump sum. In recent years they have been used more often. The disadvantage of a structured settlement is that if that resident dies sooner than people had expected, some of the future payments will be lost. But on the plus side, no money will need to be managed or taxed, and the resident could have the settlement structured so that his or her beneficiaries would receive further guaranteed payments.

Survivors, Heirs and Dependents
When an action is brought against a nursing home in a case where the resident has died, that resident’s “survivors” (defined by Florida law) can recover damages for:
Loss of companionship of the deceased resident
Loss of consortium
Loss of parental advice and guidance
Funeral and burial costs
Grief and mental anguish

Please call or email us if you would like a free consultation about your situation. At the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, we have long experience with nursing home abuse and neglect and can quickly start to gather more information to build your case. Our offices serve the Southern Florida area.

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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.