California Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits: What Damages Are Available?
UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021
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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021
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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.
We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.
UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.
We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.
The damages available to victims of elder abuse in California long term care facilities such as nursing homes, or even in assisted living facilities and home health care situations, are similar to those available in traditional personal injury or medical malpractice claims; however, there are some important differences and additional remedies are often available.
Available damages in a California Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit
In a recent interview, J. Niley Dorit, a California nursing home abuse attorney explained what damages are available to victims of elder and dependent care abuse:
Damages generally consist of actual out-of-pocket expenses, increased medical care, increased home care (if daily care is needed), out of pocket expenses, hospitalizations and things of that nature. Traditional personal injury damages are available, plus some enhanced remedies. Unlike personal injury or medical malpractice cases, one of the most significant damages available is that the victim’s attorney is entitled to ask for and receive attorneys’ fees.
So, in cases where the degree of injury might not be sufficient for an attorney to take the case on, once there is a rightful claim, there can be a recovery also for attorneys’ fees. In addition, wrongful death cases in California don’t allow for suffering prior to a death, whereas elder neglect cases allow for recovery of pre-death suffering.
Pain & Suffering
Pain and suffering, or mental anguish, may also be compensable, according to Dorit, as they would fall under the rubric of the injury itself. He provided the following examples:
We had a case recently where a gentleman suffering from severe dementia fell and broke his leg, but there was a long delay before medical care was ever called for him. During that period of time, although he wasn’t able to communicate what was wrong, it was clear that he was suffering and the facility didn’t do anything.
So, during that lapse of time while he had a broken bone and was basically trying to function with a broken bone, the facility ended up being responsible for the discomfort that he had during all of those days and the anguish that he had to go through because he simply didn’t have the wherewithal to know that he needed a doctor. The facility knew that he needed a doctor; they simply didn’t act on it.
Damage caps
We asked Dorit whether California places caps on damages in nursing home abuse cases. He told us, “There really are no caps in elder and dependent abuse cases, except for pre-death pain and suffering which is capped at $250,000. However, in other kinds of personal injury cases, there are no pre-death pain and suffering damages allowed at all.”
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Mary Martin
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Mary Martin has been a legal writer and editor for over 20 years, responsible for ensuring that content is straightforward, correct, and helpful for the consumer. In addition, she worked on writing monthly newsletter columns for media, lawyers, and consumers. Ms. Martin also has experience with internal staff and HR operations. Mary was employed for almost 30 years by the nationwide legal publi...
Published Legal Expert
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.