Nursing Home Injury Lawyer
Nursing homes are required to provide professional care to everyone that steps into their doors and enters into their facility as a patient. Nursing homes are supposed to treat every resident with respect and dignity that they deserve in their elderly age, however many states show a national trend of falling short of the standard of care.
In weighing whether a nursing home is falling short of the standard of care they are required by law to provide to any nursing home resident under their care, people in the families of these residents are acquiring nursing home injury lawyers such as the ones available at Davis & Brusca, LLC.
There are state and federal laws that establish minimum responsibility standards throughout the entire United States, and still a trend exists where states are falling short. And when the rules are not adhered to and patients are not protected, injuries and abuse happen.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has found that over 366 long-term homes in New Jersey alone have provided the residents with substandard care that is well below the national average. And a lot of it is that the living conditions are unsafe which puts residents at risk for accidents, and usually when you have living conditions that are unsafe you also have food sanitation that is not quite up to standard.
But you might be wondering why this is happening, why isn’t anyone noticing?
Your nursing home injury lawyer is going to be able to tell you that the families of these residents can always visit them, the families of these residents are not going behind the scenes and seeing how their grandmother’s food is being prepared or seeing the nursing home when there’s no visitors. And with Covid on the rise, sadly nursing homes are not a focus.
Many states have a statute of limitations for nursing home injury claims, of roughly 2 years. This is not always the same and it may change from state to state so ask your nursing home injury lawyer about those statutes of limitations so that you can ensure you are filing your claim and the correct amount of time. If you miss the timeframe you cannot file, and saying I didn’t know there was a time frame is not going to run over with the judge.
Many states may also have punitive damages caps for personal injury cases that are tied to nursing home abuse or injury, and your nursing home injury lawyer is going to be able to tell you if your state that you are working in has a cap. Often times is Is going to look like something that is your punitive damages are limited to five times the compensatory damages or maxed out at $350,000, and others will depend greatly on the state you are in and the rules of that state.
Furthermore, your nursing home injury lawyer is going to be sure you understand that you need to file this as a personal injury case and not a civil case if you are seeking punitive damages because punitive damages are not allowed to be given out in civil cases.