Proving Damages in DC Nursing Home Abuse Cases

The biggest factors involved in proving damages in DC nursing home abuse cases are the person’s quality of life before and after the accident, the cost of medical care as a result of the accident or abuse.

If the conduct is particularly egregious, a jury may want to punish the nursing home as a result of the conduct itself.

An attorney with experience in assisted living negligence cases can help prove these damages by documenting medical records, pictures, and conversations with the injured person or their loved ones.

Defining Types of Recoverable Damages

Clients are able to recover compensatory damages, which can be economic and non-economic. Additionally, punitive damages may be available in particularly egregious cases, normally involving some intentional conduct.

Economic damages are typically pretty minimal in a nursing home case because the people who suffer from neglect are already bedridden and require constant care. The compensation will typically include cost of medical bills or for the additional care they are going to have to receive.

Typically, people who are in nursing homes are not working so there will not be a viable loss wages claim. Non-economic damages that are available include compensation for pain and suffering, or loss of enjoyment of life.

Unique Aspects of Nursing Home Abuse Damages

Punitive compensation is often a rare result of proving damages in DC nursing home abuse cases. Punitive damages are a unique aspect often available in nursing home abuse cases. Nursing home residents are vulnerable members of society, so if they are abused, that tends to upset a jury more than other potential victims of abuse. The other unique damage aspect is that lost wages are typically unavailable as opposed to other types of cases.

Understanding the Role of Family in Abuse Cases

Family members will help represent the injured person by obtaining the individual’s medical records, any pictures or any emails they have may sent. The medical records are typically what is most important in proving the case. Any records of conversations, complaints made, or police reports are also helpful in proving the existence of abuse or neglect in a nursing home action.

What is the Role of a Lifecare Plan?

Lifecare plans delineate the need for future medical care over the course of an individual’s life. Typically, in a nursing home case, you do not see a lot of life care plans because the people already in nursing homes do not have significantly increased medical costs.

If for some reason there are significant medical costs and the individual has a significant life expectancy, a life care plan will increase the weight of the evidence presented for the need for future medical care. Future medical care expenses is an available element when proving damages in DC nursing home abuse cases.

If the nursing home agrees to a life care plan and then does not provide the services or execute the plan as they agreed to, that can be evidence of negligence itself.