Nursing homes are facilities that provide residential care for elderly and disabled people. Residents at nursing homes rely on their facilities’ staff for their well-being. Accordingly, when nursing home staff act negligently, serious injuries can occur.
You can sue for injuries you suffered as the result of nursing home abuse. However, the path to compensation can be complex. Our experienced attorneys can provide guidance and support through each step of the legal process.
Call Rice Law’s nursing home abuse lawyers at (443) 232-9976 for a free case evaluation.
What is Nursing Home Abuse in Maryland?
Nursing home abuse occurs when residents are hurt because of the intentional or negligent actions committed by caretakers and other residents. In most cases, the abuse is perpetrated by staff in nursing homes. Victims of nursing home abuse can suffer both physical and psychological injuries.
Damages
Residents’ families trust that qualified caregivers will watch over their loved ones. Accordingly, when abuse occurs, the consequences can be devastating for victims and their loved ones. Fortunately, victims can recover financial compensation for damages they incurred.
Types of Abuse
There are many forms of intentional and negligent conduct that may constitute nursing home abuse. If you suspect that you or someone you know has suffered such abuse, then you should contact our Maryland nursing home abuse attorneys for help bringing a claim against the liable party.
Why Does Nursing Home Abuse Occur in Maryland?
There are multiple potential sources of nursing home abuse. The following are common reasons why nursing home abuse occurs in Maryland:
Overworked Staff
Nursing home abuse regularly occurs because of overworked staff. When nursing home staff becomes overly tired, they are prone to making careless mistakes that cause injuries to residents. Furthermore, overworked staff may become exasperated and angry, causing them to take out their frustrations on the people they are supposed to be caring for. Our Maryland nursing home abuse lawyers can determine if the abuse committed in your case was caused by overworked staff.
Lack of Supervision
Lack of supervision for nursing home staff members is also common source of abuse in Maryland. When nursing home staff are not properly supervised, they can become inattentive and may cause injuries to residents.
Personal Greed
Furthermore, some staff members in nursing homes may commit abuse that is motivated by personal greed. For instance, a staff member may steal property away from residents or trick them into giving up their money. Our Maryland nursing home abuse attorneys can help victims of this abuse file claims against at-fault staff members.
Understaffed Facilities
Nursing home abuse also happens because facilities are understaffed. When nursing homes do not hire a proper number of nurses proportionate to their number of residents, serious injuries can be sustained by victims who do not receive the attention they require.
Corporate Negligence
Lastly, nursing home abuse can also be caused by negligent decisions made by corporations that run the nursing homes. For instance, an injury may occur because a facility hired a nurse that was not qualified to care for its residents. Furthermore, a corporation may cause injuries by failing to adequately train its nursing home staff. You can call our experienced Maryland nursing home abuse attorneys for help investigating whether abuse is related to corporate negligence.
Types of Nursing Home Abuse in Maryland
Nursing home abuse can present itself in several different forms. The following are various types of abuse that regularly occur in Maryland:
Financial Abuse
Many nursing home residents suffer forms of financial abuse. Financial abuse occurs when staff members take residents’ money or trick them into giving up access to their finances. For example, the following acts would all constitute financial abuse:
- Stealing credit cards, money, or other valuable items
- Inappropriately gaining access to residents’ financial records
- Restricting access to residents’ bank accounts
- Abusing their powers in order to change residents’ wills
People who suffer financial abuse may incur multiple forms of economic and non-economic damages. Our Maryland nursing home abuse lawyers can offer support and guidance to victims of this type of abuse.
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse is a type of nursing home abuse often endured by senior citizens in Maryland. This form of abuse may occur when staff members shove, kick, or punch residents. However, physical abuse may also occur when residents are inappropriately restrained.
Any nursing home resident can be subject to physical abuse. However, those who endure mental disabilities can have a higher propensity to suffer this type of harm. Thankfully, those who sustain physical abuse may reach out to our law firm for help pursuing payment for their injuries.
Emotional Abuse
Furthermore, some nursing home abuse victims suffer from emotional abuse. Emotional abuse can arise from various forms of intentional and negligent conduct exhibited by staff. For example, the following actions could be considered a form of emotional abuse:
- Keeping residents from visiting with other residents, friends, or family.
- Controlling a resident’s schedule and activities without their consent
- Making threats to residents
- Making demeaning statements to residents
People who experience emotional abuse can develop many different types of mental health issues. Accordingly, if you or a loved one suffered emotional abuse while staying in a nursing home, call our lawyers as quickly as possible. Our experienced Maryland nursing home abuse attorneys will help plaintiffs build their claims.
Neglect
Lastly, neglect is a common type of nursing home abuse that occurs in Maryland. This form of abuse happens when nursing home staff do not provide required services for their residents. For instance, residents may develop harmful injuries and illnesses because their caretakers did not maintain their personal hygiene. Further, neglect can occur when staff members fail to provide a proper amount of water and food to their residents.
What Damages Can Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits Pay?
If your loved one was injured because of abuse in a nursing home, they may be entitled to these damages:
Medical Bills
The cost of any treatment for the injuries or health effects they sustained might be costly. This might require moving them to a different facility, such as an inpatient care facility. This can be expensive, especially if you are paying for their room back at their nursing home at the same time.
Pain and Suffering
Your loved one may have damages for their physical pain, the embarrassment and shame of being abused, emotional distress, and more. These are paid for the injury itself and the harm suffered, regardless of how severe the physical injuries might have been. However, more severe injuries often require higher pain and suffering payments.
Other Damages
Other costs might come about as a consequence of the abuse, such as the cost of moving your loved one, seeking doctors’ exams to gather evidence, and deposing witnesses. All of these costs can be claimed as part of the lawsuit.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages may be available if the case goes to trial to punish the defendant nursing home for their bad actions.
What Should You Do if You Suspect Nursing Home Abuse?
Filing a nursing home abuse case means investigating and gathering evidence. If you suspect abuse, take the following steps:
Call a Lawyer
Call our nursing home abuse lawyers if you suspect abuse. We can help put immediate pressure on the nursing home and demand that they preserve evidence and make sure your loved one is safe. If they destroy evidence after preservation letters, we can seek penalties against them.
We can also help you understand your rights for getting your loved one’s medical records and potentially moving them from the nursing home.
Get Your Loved One to Safety
You may need to take steps to secure your loved one’s safety if their nursing home is too dangerous. Leaving them there may be possible if the staff changes out abusive staff and gives you assurances about their safety with other staff members.
If it just is not feasible to keep them there, you may be able to take them into your own house or move them to a new facility. We can see what options might be available to you to help with this or to claim the damages for the move as part of your case.
Gather Evidence
Request all medical records you can. If you note injuries, take photos of them and record when you first noted them. If they get worse, track any changes.
Also note any reports from your loved one about abuse. Older adults might not have a great memory for names or faces, but it is important to get any details they have written down or recorded in case they forget them later.
File Claims
We can then assemble everything we have and file a formal lawsuit in court. This might not mean going to trial, as many cases settle before the trial date. Even so, the pressure of a trial pushes defendants to settle and gives us the ability to demand evidence through the courts.
How Do You Report Nursing Home Abuse?
Always work with a lawyer when reporting nursing home abuse. If you report it to the nursing home staff, they may work to protect their coworkers and hide the abuse or destroy evidence. Get a lawyer involved to help secure evidence for trial and report the abuse to the authorities.
What if the Nursing Home Has Evidence in Their Possession?
A lot of the evidence in the case will usually be in the defendant’s control. This includes things like
- Call bell logs
- Medical records
- Staffing logs
- Staff disciplinary records
- Staff training records
- Internal investigations into past abuse
- Past reports of abuse.
Our lawyers can subpoena this kind of evidence as part of your case through the courts.
What is Discovery?
Discovery is the stage of trial where both sides exchange evidence. Trials are not based on surprises or “gotchas” in American law. Instead, both sides have to turn over evidence and records in their possession during the discovery stage.
Defendants may try to settle a case to avoid discovery, because they know that even worse evidence will emerge there. Most cases settle after the discovery stage, since both sides know everything about the case at that point.
Can You Get Punitive Damages?
In many nursing home abuse cases, you can seek punitive damages. These are additional damages that the defendant is ordered to pay to punish them for their seriously dangerous or reckless behavior.
Courts only award these damages at trial; you usually cannot get them in settlement.
How Long Do You Have to Sue for Nursing Home Abuse?
Maryland law typically gives victims 3 years to file a claim. This runs from the date of the abuse itself, not from the date the family found out about it.
Will a Nursing Home Make You Sign an NDA After Settlement?
Settlement negotiations might include a request to sign an NDA – a non-disclosure agreement. This is an agreement that you will not tell others about the alleged abuse or the settlement.
If they want an NDA, they will have to pay more to get it. However, it is often in everyone’s best interests if you are free to talk about the abuse, as it may be important to warn others about the safety issues at the nursing home.
Can a Family Sue on a Loved One’s Behalf?
If your parent or grandparent is older and you worry that they cannot file a lawsuit, we can help you file on their behalf. This may require getting power of attorney documents or guardianship if they cannot vindicate their own rights, but we can also simply represent them directly.
When you call us to be a lawyer for your loved one, they are our client, but we can involve you in the case if they consent to it.
Victims of Nursing Home Abuse in Maryland Can Call Our Law Firm for Support
Call Rice Law’s nursing home abuse lawyers at (410) 694-7291 for a free review of your case.