On a scale of 1 to 10 I would say that Grossman Law Offices is a perfect 10.
-
C. Gonsalez
Workplace Accident Case
Nursing Home Wrongful Deaths
If a Family Member has Died due to Abuse or Negligence at a Retirement Home or Nursing Home, Grossman Law Offices Wants to Help you Understand Your Legal Recourse
In this day and age, most people turn toward a nursing home to take care of their loved ones once they become too old or infirmed to be cared for in the home. With more and more people choosing this option, instances of negligence or abuse to the elderly and the mentally handicapped have only increased in turn, and occasionally that abuse even turns fatal.
At Grossman Law Offices, our attorneys are sickened by abuse of the elderly, and we want to help you make sure that whoever caused the death of your family member is brought to justice. Nursing home abuse, like all other medical malpractice issues, is highly technical, and you will need the help of a well-trained and seasoned nursing home abuse lawyer.
Common Forms of Nursing Home Abuse & Negligence
When a nursing home takes on a patient, it and its employees have the duty of providing care for the elderly or infirmed patient. If the patient suffers harm, even if that harm wasn’t intentional, then the surviving family members have the right to seek compensation. If that harm takes the form of a criminal attack like assault or starvation, then criminal charges will likely be filed, but the family members are also permitted to seek compensation through a civil lawsuit.
If the harm done to your loved one in a nursing home was accidental, there won’t be any criminal charges filed. However, you can still seek compensation through a civil lawsuit for a variety of nursing home abuse offenses, including:
- Failure to supply the right medication in correct dosage.
- Failure to diagnose and treat harmful conditions like pneumonia.
- Neglect.
- Not providing appropriate bathroom assistance.
- Failure to respond to a request for help in adequate time.
Pursuable Compensation in a Case of Fatal Elderly Abuse
Without adequate help from the attending medical staff at a nursing home, elderly patients stand little chance of survival. When negligent care causes the death of your parent or spouse, then you have the right to seek compensation through a comprehensive wrongful death lawsuit, seeking both wrongful death damages and survival damages.
Granted, it may seem crass or unfeeling to be thinking about money when your loved one has died, but the only way to bring the responsible party to justice is often through a wrongful death lawsuit. Moreover, the death of your loved one has caused financial and emotional turmoil for your family, so your family should be compensated accordingly. By pursuing wrongful death damages, the spouse and children can obtain compensation for their own personal suffering caused by the one’s death. Parents are also eligible, but this will be fairly rare in cases of nursing home abuse and would just come into effect in instances of mentally handicapped people who are neglected or abused. Examples of wrongful death damages are:
- Funeral bills.
- Loss of the unique familial love the deceased provided.
- Mental and emotional anguish.
- Loss of monetary support is also attainable, but most nursing home patients are not bringing in financial support.
Conversely, only the deceased’s closest living relative can seek survival damages, which are intended to allow this person to obtain the compensation the victim should be due for his or her own suffering. Survival damages may include compensation for:
- Medical bills incurred as a result of the fatal ailment.
- The victim’s pain and suffering.
- The victim’s emotional and mental anguish.
In Arkansas, families should take notice that they must name a personal representative of the deceased’s estate before taking any legal action with a civil lawsuit.
What Makes Nursing Home Wrongful Death Cases so Challenging
There are a number of reasons why retirement home wrongful deaths are extremely complex and difficult to digest for those without significant legal experience handling these cases. For one thing, many damages are not easily estimated. While a funeral bill can be easily demonstrated by producing the physical bill, other damages like pain and suffering are highly debatable. Only a nursing home abuse attorney who has dealt with many other cases will be able to put an accurate price tag on such a concept.
However, that’s only one of the inherent challenges in a nursing home abuse case. A much bigger obstacle usually comes from producing evidence. The victim cannot testify as to what happened, and often times the other patients in the nursing home are also unable to testify or can be easily discredited due to their age and infirmity. Thus, you will need an attorney capable of finding physical evidence to prove the abuse occurred, as well as, putting it in a digestible contest for the jury members with the use of expert testimony.
Making nursing home abuse cases even more difficult to win, they are medical malpractice cases, which have abnormally high burdens of proof and abnormally low minimum insurance limits. The purpose of this is to discourage frivolous lawsuits; but the end result is often that legitimate lawsuits against negligent nursing homes are extremely hard to win.
Thus, many law firms now choose to avoid nursing home abuse cases, seeing them as too risky and not worthwhile of the effort and expenditure of time and assets. That’s not the case at Grossman Law Offices. We won’t stand by idly while elderly people in Texas and Arkansas are abused and killed. We’ve been handling nursing home abuse and other wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits for 20 years, so we have the knowledge, the willingness, and the ability to secure the compensation your family deserves. Call us now for a free consultation to discover how we can help at 1-855-589-5645 (toll free). You can discuss your tragic story with one of our legal professionals, get your questions answered, and find out your legal options.
A young woman lost her life after a bar over served her to more than three times the legal limit resulting in her burning to death in a single-vehicle accident. Witnesses stated that she was so intoxicated that she could barely make it to her vehicle without assistance. Through litigation, our attorneys ascertained the necessary evidence to prove that the establishment provided alcohol to an obviously intoxicated person, thus resulting in her ultimate demise.
$550,000.00
$220,000.00
$25,000.00
(policy limits) Our firm was hired by the wife and children of a retired Army Colonel who was killed in an underide 18-wheeler accident. In addition to being a decorated veteran, the decedent worked both professionally and on a voluntary basis to establish numerous learning institutions and vocational programs for at risk youths. The accident occurred as the decedent was traveling on a rural highway when an 18-wheeler failed to yield the right of way and made a rolling stop through a stop sign.
This placed the trailer of the 18-wheeler in a position whereby it blocked the entire roadway and shoulder, leaving the decedent no option but to collide with the trailer. Witnesses on the scene attempted to revive him but to no avail. Furthermore, while two female eye witnesses struggled to pry open the decedent's door to provide emergency care, the truck driver stayed in his truck and offered no assistance. Despite what appeared to be an incredibly apparent case of negligence on behalf of the defendant, defense counsel refused to accept liability resulting in rather lengthy litigation.
The defendants initially denied the claim based on the allegation that the decedent was speeding and the truck driver therefore could not adequately gauge the amount of time he had to pause at the stop sign. The physical evidence contradicted this notion entirely, notwithstanding the fact that even if the decedent had been contributorily negligent, that would not have outweighed the severe degree of negligence on the part of the defendant. Nevertheless, our attorneys were able to conclusively refute this argument based on eye-witness testimony and the testimony from police investigators who calculated the decedent's speed to be precisely at the posted speed limit. In a desperate and largely unprecedented move, the defendants then designated the state as a responsible third party.
Generally speaking, a defendant will often threaten to designate a third party in order to leverage their position but it is rare that such an arbitrary and arguably frivolous designation is actually carried out. However, that is precisely what occurred and the state was thusly incorporated into the lawsuit by the defendants. The basis of the defendant's argument was that the state erected a large street sign that obstructed the truck driver's view of approaching traffic.
Several months of intense litigation were required to before the defendant finally acquiesced in regard to this argument. The argument was finally abandoned by the defendants when in the first mediation our attorneys presented video footage shot (in a controlled setting) from the perspective of an 18-wheeler driver which showed that the sign simply did not obstruct enough of the roadway in order to be a hazard. The case was ultimately resolved through litigation.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
(policy limits) Our attorneys secured a recovery against a major trucking company for the daughter of a man who was killed after his vehicle collided into an 18-wheeler which was blocking the roadway. Litigation is ongoing against additional defendants.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
Recovery for victim of dental malpractice. Plaintiff suffered infection after wrong surgery was performed.
$125,000.00
$41,250.00
$5,000.00
(policy limits) An incredibly intoxicated driver drove head-on into a vehicle, killing several of the vehicle's occupants. The defendants had limited assets, yet an alternative policy was uncovered, which the defendants argued was non applicable. Under threat of litigation, our attorneys negotiated a settlement for the policy limits.
$300,000.00
$132,000.00
$0.00
Facility sued for negligent contribution to the death of an innocent bystander. A fatal shooting occurred on the property after the facility failed to appropriately respond to outbursts of violence & gang activity. Following the young man's death, his parents hired our firm to pursue the facility for their negligent actions including failure to provide adequate security. The case was successfully resolved through litigation.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
(policy limits) A father of two was killed on the job when he fell from a personnel platform atop an elevated piece of machinery. The defendant was initially afforded protection from a liability suit by virtue of their workers' comp policy. Upon thorough investigation, it became evident that gross negligence was at the root of the accident, and suit was filed accordingly. A successful outcome was obtained through litigation.
$550,000.00
$220,000.00
$40,000.00
(policy limits were $100k) Recovery for wife of a motorcyclist who was killed in a drunk driving accident.
$97,500.00
$48,750.00
$0.00
Recovery for family of victim who died after receiving the wrong medication.
$625,000.00
$206,250.00
$5,000.00
Our attorneys were hired to investigate a fatal motor vehicle accident involving an 18-wheeler that claimed the lives of several men, the family of one in particular which our firm represented, felt that the official version of events as outlined in the police report was not an accurate portrayal of the facts and circumstances of the collision.
Our firm launched an investigation, the findings of which served as the basis for a subsequent lawsuit. We were able to determine that the defendant's accusations of contributory negligence on behalf of he driver of the vehicle did appear to be valid and plaintiffs conceded as much. However, the plaintiffs were adamant that the contributory negligence did not entirely overshadow the negligence on behalf of the defendant truck driver.
Through physical evidence and an admission of liability that our attorneys were able to importune from the defendant under oath, we were able to show that the defendant had indeed pulled into the path of the decedent's vehicle, which was of consequence irrespective of the decedent's own contributory negligence, and that icontact.com
$250,000.00
$82,500.00
$10,000.00