FAQ Nursing Home Neglect Lawyers in San Diego, California

Under California law, abuse and neglect can play out in several ways. In the case of "physical abuse", it is usually self-evident. A battery, in any form, upon someone over 64 years of age is per se elder abuse. "Neglect", however, is not so easy to spot and define. The definition of actionable neglect is the failure of any person having care or custody of that person to exercise a degree of care that a reasonable person in a like position would provide and doing so recklessly (or worse, intentionally). That is, disregarding the rights and safety of a person receiving custodial care in a manner that exposes them to harm.

In a nursing home or assisted living setting, a resident/patient can be neglected in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, the failure to prepare and follow a care-plan (or to update the care-plan), a failure to keep the resident free from safety hazards, the failure to nourish with food and water, the failure to provide appropriate care, and failure to prevent illness or injury. In real world cases, this is usually revealed in cases involving falls with injuries, bed sores, dehydration, and malnutrition etc.

Every case is different, however, and every case requires its own investigation, which is why it is important to contact a San Diego nursing home lawyer.

Whether or not you have a case, of course, depends on the facts of your case. If there was some wrongdoing, but no injury or actual harm, then probably not. But if you experienced an unintended injury, illness, or death that you believe was preventable, then yes, you might have a case.

If the death of the person can be connected to the acts or conduct of the nursing home or assisted living facility, then yes, the legal heirs of the person who died would have a case for “wrongful death” against the nursing home.

What makes California elder abuse law unique, is that in addition to the heirs having a case for wrongful death, the person who died may have his or her own case that survives the death. This is a unique feature of California law.

Probably. In our firm, we have handled hundreds of cases involving bedsores, and there are commonalities among the successful ones. In short, large bed sores (especially those considered a Stage 4), should not occur in a nursing home or assisted living facility. These sores are usually the result of neglect and develop after extended periods lying in bed or in a wheelchair. Nursing facilities have a duty to monitor for these sores, and when noticed create a treatment plan. The failure to do so is actionable neglect.

It depends on what caused the broken bone. We frequently see cases involving fractured hips/femurs/pelvis and head injuries resulting from falls. If those falls occurred because the facility failed to adequately assess the resident’s risk for falling, or the facility contributed in some other negligent way for the fracture, then yes, you and/or your loved one probably has a case.

The statute of limitations in cases against nursing homes can be confusing because it is different depending on the type of nursing facility you are suing. Against a facility licensed as a skilled nursing facility (aka, a “nursing home”), the statute of limitations is one year from the date of any injury-producing event caused by “negligence.” If the conduct is so serious that it could constitute “neglect” or “physical abuse,” the limitations period would be two years from the date of the neglect.

If the case is against a facility licensed as a residential care facility for the elderly (aka, “assisted living”), then the statute of limitations would be two years from the date of the negligence or neglect/abuse.

We always recommend that those interested in finding out of they have a case to contact a lawyer within one year from the date of the injury or the death.

Southern California Nursing Home Law Group is one of a handful of law firms in Southern California that focuses substantially on elder abuse and neglect cases under the California Elder Abuse Act. Randy Walton and Lukas Pick have decades of experience in this area of law and maintain an excellent reputation among the practitioners who do a lot of the cases, on both the plaintiff and defense side. The are considered two of the top San Diego nursing home lawyers.

The value of a nursing home injury case can vary widely. We have had very tragic cases where the value exceeded $1 million, and others where complicated liability and causation facts put the value around $100,000.00. But the average settlement in a lawsuit against a San Diego nursing home for injury or death is $395.000.00.