Placing a loved one in a nursing home or residential care facility is often difficult for family members, even when it is absolutely necessary. You do your best to find the right facility and staff that you can trust.
Sadly, nursing home abuse is more common than most people realize. If you believe your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse, we want to help you.
Our attorneys have been protecting the rights of injury victims for over thirty years and have a record of recovering maximum compensation for our clients.
Call (770) 865-8654 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation. We will listen to your concerns, answer your questions, and explain your rights. If we take your case, we will leave no stone unturned in pursuing the justice and compensation you are entitled to.
The Julie A. Rice, Attorney at Law, & Affiliates Advantage
- Our compassionate attorneys understand your pain and stress, and we are committed to helping you achieve the relief and justice you deserve.
- Nobody fights harder for their clients. Our attorneys work tirelessly to investigate your claim, identify and collect vital evidence, and build your strongest case.
- We have a thirty-year proven record of providing top-tier legal services and collecting maximum client compensation.
Types of Nursing Home Abuse
According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, elder abuse is “an intentional act or failure to act that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult.”
Nursing home residents are primarily older adults. However, they may also be disabled persons of any age. Nursing home abuse has many forms. Some of the most common types of nursing home abuse include:
- Physical abuse. Sadly, nursing home staff can be guilty of pushing, shoving, punching, kicking, and rough handling of nursing home residents.
- Emotional and Psychological abuse. Some residents are threatened, insulted, screamed at, and isolated.
- Abandonment. Nursing home staff may leave a resident unsupervised and alone for long periods of time.
- Confinement. Staff may restrain or isolate a resident without a medical reason.
- Financial abuse includes forging a resident’s signature for purchases, withdrawing funds without authorization, and other types of theft.
- Sexual abuse. One of the worst types of nursing home abuse happens when a resident is sexually molested.
- Passive neglect. This type of abuse happens when a caregiver fails to provide a resident with necessities such as food, hydration, clothing, shelter, or medical care.
- Willful deprivation. Willful deprivation may occur when a resident is denied medication, medical care, food, or other assistance that exposes them to physical, mental, or emotional harm.
Signs of Nursing Home Abuse
Some signs of nursing home abuse are obvious; others are subtle. Some of the most common signs of nursing home abuse include:
- Bedsores
- Poor hygiene and unclean surroundings.
- Weight loss.
- Malnutrition or dehydration.
- Unaddressed medical concerns.
- Unexplained bruises, cuts, and broken bones.
- Behavior changes, such as agitation, being withdrawn, or being fearful.
If you are concerned that your loved one is being neglected or abused, seek help. Our nursing home abuse attorneys have the experience, skills, and resources to help you and your loved one get the relief and justice you need.
Who Can File a Sandy Springs Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit?
If you or your loved one has experienced nursing home abuse, contact an experienced Sandy Springs nursing home abuse lawyer right away. You need to know whether you have standing to file a claim and how long you have to file.
In Georgia, the following parties generally can file a nursing home abuse lawsuit:
- Victims who experienced abuse or neglect.
- Close family members of a resident who suffered from abuse or neglect.
- Estate executors and personal representatives, if the resident is deceased.
If your loved one died as a result of the abuse they suffered in a nursing home or long-term care facility, you may have the right to file a Georgia wrongful death action.
How Long Do I Have to File a Georgia Nursing Home Abuse Claim?
A statute of limitations sets the deadline for filing a lawsuit. If you miss your filing deadline, you will be unable to recover compensation for your damages.
In Georgia, the deadline for filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit is two years. You must file your claim within two years of the date the abuse happened.
However, there are exceptions to the two-year deadline. If a government agency owns the nursing home, you will have a much shorter filing deadline.
Other factors that may give you more time to file a claim include:
- The resident’s ability to testify.
- The facility provided inaccurate information about the abuse claim.
- The abuse occurred at a later date than you believed.
- There is uncertainty about when the abuse happened or was discovered.
You must promptly consult an experienced Sandy Springs nursing home abuse attorney to determine your filing deadline.
Additionally, it is wise to take action as quickly as possible to protect and secure vital evidence to support your case. Evidence can be lost, destroyed, or diminished over time.
At Julie A. Rice, Attorney at Law & Affiliates, we take fast action to identify and collect evidence while it is still available and fresh. The sooner you contact us, the sooner we can begin building your strongest case.
How a Sandy Springs Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Can Help You
If you believe your loved one has suffered from nursing home abuse or neglect, you should consult an experienced Sandy Springs nursing home abuse attorney promptly to understand your rights and options.
Your attorney will conduct discovery to help identify and collect evidence to support your claim. They can advise whether you have a valid claim and provide an estimate of what they believe could be recoverable damages in your case.
They will be familiar with the tactics used by insurance companies to deny and devalue your claim and will be able to combat those tactics to hold the nursing home facility and their insurers responsible for the full damages of your case.
They will handle all communications between you and the insurance company and defense attorneys and ensure all deadlines are adhered to.
An experienced nursing home abuse attorney can help negotiate a fair settlement of your claim as quickly as possible. When a fair settlement is not reached, your attorney will take your case to trial and demand full compensation for your damages.
Schedule a Free Consultation
Nursing home abuse is more common than most people realize. If you believe a loved one is being abused or neglected in a nursing home facility, take action to protect them.
The attorneys at Julie A. Rice, Attorney at Law, & Affiliates have over thirty years of experience securing maximum compensation for victims of abuse and injury. We want to help you get the justice and compensation you deserve.
You can schedule a free consultation by calling (770) 865-8654 or completing the consultation request form on our contact page.