Gainesville Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Gainesville Nursing Home Abuse Attorney

Thousands of families throughout Georgia trust nursing homes to provide medical care and basic daily assistance to their elderly loved ones. Unfortunately, not all nursing homes provide the same level of care, and many residents are subjected to damaging abuse and neglect. If you have discovered any such issue with your elderly loved one, it is crucial that you consult an experienced Gainesville nursing home abuse lawyer as swiftly as possible.

Experienced Legal Counsel for Nursing Home Abuse Victims in Gainesville, GA

The team at Pleasant Law, PLLC, offers compassionate and results-driven legal counsel for all types of nursing home abuse cases for clients in Gainesville and surrounding communities. We offer personalized legal counsel for cases that many other lawyers will not accept due to the difficulty often encountered in pursuing legal recourse against nursing homes and their parent companies.

Most nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout the United States have secured legal protections through lobbying, making it very difficult for the average person to hold such a business accountable for abuse on their premises. However, these cases are not impossible to win. You just need to consult an attorney who has proven experience handling cases like yours and the ability to address your unique needs and legal concerns.

When you choose Pleasant Law, PLLC, to handle your case, you will have immediate access to a dedicated legal advocate with experience handling cases like yours. Our firm takes a client-focused approach to every case. This means that while many nursing home abuse cases will follow similar procedural rules, we know that every case is unique and will provide carefully tailored legal counsel to each client we represent.

Determining the Grounds for a Nursing Home Abuse Case

It’s important to understand that nursing home abuse can take many forms. It is also possible for a nursing home resident to be neglected in various damaging ways, and when this neglect is intentional, it will also qualify as abuse. If you are unsure whether you have grounds for a nursing home abuse claim in Gainesville, your attorney can help you gather the evidence that will form the foundation of your claim.

If you visit your elderly loved one, stay vigilant for the early warning signs of abuse and/or neglect. Take note of any unexplained injuries, and if your loved one has bruises, scrapes, or other signs of harm, the nursing home staff should be able to produce incident reports and a solid explanation as to what has happened. Also, take note of their living space to ensure it is clean and that your loved one has their basic necessities.

Nursing home abuse can happen in various ways:

• Physical abuse is one of the most commonly reported forms of nursing home abuse and can involve intentionally striking, hitting, or intentionally being too rough when handling an elderly resident.
• Some nursing home residents are subjected to various forms of sexual abuse, which can not only expose them to sexually transmitted infections and other medical complications but also cause severe psychological trauma. The at-fault party in this situation is likely to face severe criminal penalties along with liability for the victim’s damages.
• Neglect, such as failure to provide food, water, medication, and clean bedding, can qualify as abuse if a caregiver intentionally refuses to provide a patient with their necessities. For example, a nursing home resident could develop bedsores if they are not regularly repositioned by caregivers.
• Many nursing home residents are unfortunately subjected to verbal abuse, which, over time, can be psychologically harmful and exacerbate their already fragile states.

Accurately identifying any type of nursing home abuse can be challenging, and it can also be difficult to confront a nursing home that has acted to cover up and/or otherwise protect its staff members from accountability for their actions. However, the right Gainesville nursing home abuse lawyer will know how to build a strong case on your family’s behalf and explain the steps you will need to take to ensure accountability and compensation for your damages.

Proving Liability for Nursing Home Abuse in Gainesville

In any personal injury case, the plaintiff must be prepared to prove liability for their claimed damages before they will be able to recover compensation for their losses. When it comes to nursing home abuse, however, this is an intentional act and may lead to criminal charges for the at-fault party along with their liability for the damages they inflicted. However, for the purposes of a personal injury suit, it is essential to know how to prove liability.

The plaintiff in a personal injury case must accurately identify the defendant or defendants they believe are responsible for their damages, and then they must prove exactly how they caused the damages. Your Gainesville nursing home abuse lawyer can potentially assist you in gathering evidence to support your claim, including seeking security footage from the nursing home along with testimony from witnesses who have seen abuse occur.

Once the plaintiff has accurately identified the defendant and proven what they have done, they will then need to show the full extent of the resulting damages. The plaintiff must not only show proof of all economic losses but also make a strong case to assert liability for non-economic damages. Additionally, they must prove all claimed damages resulted solely from the defendant’s actions and not from any other cause.

Recovering Compensation for Nursing Home Abuse in Gainesville

The main objective of a personal injury suit is to hold a defendant accountable for the harm they have done to the plaintiff and to secure compensation for all resulting damages. In most personal injury claims, an injured plaintiff is able to claim compensation for economic losses such as property damage, medical expenses, and lost wages, and they may also seek compensation for projected future losses resulting from the incident.

Your Gainesville nursing home abuse lawyer can assist you with calculating all the additional medical expenses your family has incurred to treat your elderly loved one’s abuse. They may not only need medical care for the injuries they suffered but also ongoing care if their experience has resulted in their other medical conditions worsening. It is also possible to claim compensation for necessary mental health treatment.

If you or a family member was forced to stop working to care for the victim, it may be possible to recover compensation for lost income. Your attorney can help you calculate these losses to ensure maximum recovery from the defendant. If the defendant stole, damaged, or destroyed any personal property, you can also claim compensation for these losses.

Georgia’s personal injury laws also enable injured plaintiffs to seek compensation for the pain and suffering they experienced, and state law does not limit this aspect of recovery in most personal injury claims. Generally, the amount of pain and suffering compensation a plaintiff can recover will depend on the severity of their injuries and whether they suffered any long-term or permanent harm because of the defendant’s actions.

Punitive Damages in Nursing Home Abuse Cases

In any personal injury case in which the defendant harmed the victim through an illegal act, it is possible for the plaintiff to also receive punitive damages at the discretion of the court. As the name implies, these damages are meant to punish the defendant for their behavior. It is possible to secure punitive damages from the defendant and/or their employer based on the details of how the abuse occurred.

Your Gainesville nursing home abuse lawyer can advise you as to the full scope of the damages you could potentially recover from a successful nursing home abuse case. Ultimately, your case may be complex, but with the right attorney on your side, you can approach the situation with confidence.

Common Challenges in Nursing Home Abuse Cases

Many attorneys throughout the United States will not take nursing home abuse cases due to the unique difficulties they present when it comes to holding large corporations accountable for the actions of their employees. Many companies have lobbied for legal protections that may appear to allow them to permit abuse and neglect with impunity, but the right attorney can pierce this apparent veil of legal protection.

Your case may not only involve a civil claim for damages against a specific individual or group of individuals, but also their employer. If an investigation reveals that your loved one was subjected to abuse by a caregiver and that the caregiver’s employer knew about the abuse but failed or refused to take any steps to correct it, they share liability for the incident and can face a wide range of legal penalties.

A nursing home abuse case may also require negotiation with insurance companies, and an insurance company will almost always fight back against a claim for compensation in whatever way it can. With the right attorney assisting you, you can approach this situation with greater peace of mind and confidence. Your attorney can negotiate for you to ensure any insurance settlement you receive is fair and reasonable.

What to Expect From Your Gainesville Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

When you choose Pleasant Law, PLLC, you will have peace of mind knowing that a dedicated and experienced attorney is handling your case. Our firm has extensive experience handling a wide range of nursing home abuse cases, and we know the challenges you could face in your impending nursing home abuse claim. We are not afraid to confront insurance companies and other large corporations on behalf of our injured clients.

We can immediately get to work gathering the evidence you will need to prove liability for your loved one’s abuse. If the at-fault party has broken the law, we can work with local law enforcement and explain how these interactions could influence your case.

When it comes to securing compensation for your damages, we approach every case we accept with the goal of helping our client maximize their recovery. Trust us to accurately calculate all immediate and future economic losses you can claim as well as assist you in determining suitable pain and suffering compensation.

Many personal injury claims filed in Gainesville, Florida are settled outside of court. This saves all parties involved time and money they would otherwise spend in protracted litigation. However, settlement is not always possible for nursing home abuse cases, and your case may need to go to trial in order to ensure the fairest possible outcome. Trust our firm to represent you in settlement negotiations or in the courtroom as your case requires.

Finding the Right Gainesville Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

If you believe you have grounds for legal recourse in response to abuse or neglect your elderly loved one endured in a Gainesville nursing home, it is crucial to connect with trustworthy legal counsel as quickly as possible. The right attorney can not only help you ensure accountability from those responsible but also guide you through the process of securing compensation for your family’s losses.

Pleasant Law, PLLC, has cultivated a strong professional reputation as a leading choice for legal counsel in all types of nursing home abuse cases in Gainesville and surrounding areas. In every case we accept, we take time to listen to our client’s story and learn as much as we can about their experience to ensure we provide carefully individualized legal counsel.

You have a relatively limited time to file your claim, and you need an experienced attorney to help you build the foundation of your case. Contact Pleasant Law, PLLC, today to schedule a free initial consultation with an experienced Gainesville nursing home abuse lawyer.