We all look forward to a long and happy life, especially once we retire. Aging also comes with health risks, and often, a need for full-time care beyond what a family can provide. Nursing homes and similar facilities, which are numerous in the retiree-heavy community of Central Florida, offer options for senior citizens to live out their lives in a caring environment.
Yet giving up control over an elder’s care to an outside facility carries the risk of abuse. If you or a loved one has experienced substandard care or harm in a retirement community or a facility, a Eustis nursing home abuse lawyer could help you investigate what happened and possibly bring a personal injury claim for compensation.
Nursing home abuse can take many different forms and can cause harm to residents both emotionally and physically. Abuse and neglect can include:
Nursing homes can cause these conditions through poor training practices, understaffing, and inadequate screening during hiring. If the facility causes the abuse, it might have been negligent in its duties to its residents.
Before thinking about holding a facility legally responsible, you first need to stop the harmful situation affecting you or your loved one. If a resident is in immediate danger, call 911 to get police involvement and to prevent harm. If they are not in immediate danger, lodge a complaint with the facility’s administration and even with Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) if necessary. Document all communications and obtain financial records for the resident’s time in the home.
Only once the resident is safe—even if a transfer is necessary—should you turn to a nursing home abuse lawyer in Eustis to hold the facility responsible.
Holding a nursing home responsible for abuse can involve a lawsuit for damages—compensation for the harm done to the resident. Usually, such a claim is based on negligence by the facility.
Negligence generally requires proof of four elements to work. First, the allegedly negligent entity must have a duty of care to whoever was harmed, such as the duty of nursing homes to provide appropriate care to their residents. Second, there must have been a breach of that duty, such as unreasonable action or inaction by a facility that allowed harm. Third, that breach must have caused the harm; a nursing home’s failure to provide the care must have actually caused the emotional or physical harm to the resident. Fourth, that harm must be compensable as damages, such as damages for pain and suffering, additional medical care, or the value of stolen property.
A special rule to consider in Florida is comparative fault, which exists to recognize that harm can sometimes be caused by the person harmed. As set up by Section 768.81 of the Florida Statutes, a person bringing suit can see their damages reduced by the amount of their own fault in causing the harm, and a person seeking damages who is responsible for more than 50 percent of the harm cannot recover anything.
Comparative fault may not make sense in the nursing home context, as residents typically depend heavily on the facility’s employees to move through day-to-day life. But situations where an altercation takes place or a resident ignores a warning could see comparative fault come into play.
Finally, the documentation and swift action you should take to address abuse can help you bring a claim in the right timeframe. For incidents occurring after March 24, 2023, Section 95.11 prohibits bringing a claim more than two years after the alleged abuse.
With the help of an attorney familiar with nursing home abuse cases in Eustis, you and your loved one can see if you have a strong claim of negligence against a facility that failed to live up to its responsibility for its residents.
Confronting nursing home abuse can take a lot of your energy and time. Working with a Eustis nursing home abuse lawyer from The Umansky Law Firm can make the whole process easier to manage.
A lawyer can assist with documenting the abuse and the facility’s response, and we can put together the elements of your claim against the nursing home. Call us to go over the details of your case and to learn more about your options.
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