4 Nursing Home Abuse Tips

Resolving a nursing home negligence claim in Florida can be a very detailed process. There are certain laws that set forth certain things procedurally that need to occur at certain steps along the way. It is very fact-, detail- and legally intensive, so making sure that you get the right attorneys involved early is certainly the best way to go about getting that case resolved, but there is so much that goes into one of these cases. You need to make sure that you have the right folks by your side in addressing these issues. Some of these cases can take the long, winding road through the pre-suit process before a lawsuit is filed and ultimately end up going through certain other avenues before we even get to the courthouse to potentially look at a jury trial. These are cases that can and often lag on for some period of time, but it’s important to know that we at Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz are here with you every step of the way. We’re here to guide you through the process no matter how short or long it takes, and we are here to make sure that we achieve justice for you.

Nursing home negligence cases sometimes go to trial. The vast majority of them get resolved through what is called a pre-suit process that the legislature has put in place that allows certain things to occur where claims are presented, documentation is exchanged, and injuries and damages are fully solidified. Hopefully, your case can get resolved short of a multi-year trek down the road to a jury trial, but there are no guarantees. Nursing home negligence cases can take on many forms depending on the facts and circumstances not only that led to the actual incident or incidents occurring, but also the damages and how this has affected you or your loved ones that you have in the care of these facilities.

Reporting a nursing home negligence claim starts at the facility. Documentation is important. Once something comes up that you or a loved one experience or hear about, making sure you work through the chain of command and make it known there at the ground level immediately. The next important thing to do is pick up the phone and call an experienced attorney to get in and work with you to document these things and to work through what the legislature in Tallahassee has put in front of folks that want to bring claims for nursing home negligence. There are timeframes and time limits associated with reporting and documenting that you need to keep in mind. Some exist on a much more formal level than simply letting the folks at the nursing home know what is going on. As such, getting out in front of it early on, making sure you’re raising complaints and issues with any and everyone who will listen to you at the actual facility but also reaching out to an attorney to make sure that they are working on your behalf to document this through the appropriate governmental entities are all essential.

The value of a nursing home negligence claim in Florida is very, very personal to the person that has suffered at the hands of these individuals, these folks, these corporations that we trust to look out for us and our loved ones when they’re at their most vulnerable. The value of the claim depends on many things including what ultimately occurred, how this has affected the person involved in the claim, what damages have resulted, what medical care and treatment was necessary to cure or attempt to cure the failures on the part of the nursing home, what has been missed as far as amenities and things that needed to be present, and how those things (the skilled nursing, the doctors on staff, the people that need to be looking out for us and our loved ones) have gone about causing what most of the time is immense suffering to our most vulnerable. The value of the claim is very comprehensive, based upon the amount and the extent to which the negligence of these facilities, their failure to do what they should and what we expect them to do, has affect the person involved. It, again, includes more than just dollars and cents medical expenses but ultimately what have us and our loved ones had to endure at the hands of these facilities that we have trusted.