Birmingham Insufficient Medical Care in a Nursing Home Attorneys

Have you or a family member been injured after a nursing home provided inadequate care? Did you suffer losses, financial or otherwise, due to another’s negligence? If so, you have options for seeking restitution.

The Birmingham nursing home abuse attorneys of Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP have been helping residents of Birmingham and elsewhere get compensation for their injuries by filing a claim or lawsuit, and they can do the same for you and your family. Call Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP today at (205) 324-1212, and get the help you need for your nursing home abuse case.

What Is Insufficient Medical Care?

In terms of nursing home abuse, “insufficient medical care” covers a breadth of problems. The term includes instances when staff or administrators at a nursing home either don’t provide the necessary medical intervention to promote recovery after an injury or completely neglect to notice or address an injury after it occurs. Insufficient medical care could also refer to the failure to notice and remedy, or call attention to, deterioration in the condition of a resident. Caregivers at elder care facilities are required to promote the health and well-being of their residents, and if they neglect this duty, the results can be disastrous for the resident and their family.

Nursing homes care for the most vulnerable members of our population. Elders in a care facility may have physical or mental disabilities, cognitive decline, or ongoing debilitating medical conditions. Many nursing home residents are unable to feed, clothe, or bathe themselves and require around-the-clock supervision to prevent them from injuring themselves or others. Caretakers at these facilities have a responsibility to not only protect their charges from injury but protect their wellness and overall health.

There are many examples of insufficient medical care or medical neglect at nursing homes, such as:

• Ignoring requests for medical assistance
• Failing to provide medication correctly
• Failing to provide adequate mobility aids
• Failing to prevent common nursing home injuries like bedsores and broken bones

Do I Need an Attorney for My Insufficient Medical Care Nursing Home Abuse?

In short, yes. You’re able to pursue a claim on your own if you wish, but having an attorney assist you will simplify the process for all involved and may actually help you get more compensation than you could get on your own.

There are many reasons to hire a qualified attorney for any nursing home abuse case, such as:

• We know the relevant laws and statutes. The laws surrounding what is required of nursing home care vary by state, and because nursing home abuse is a common problem, they cover a wide range of scenarios and can be very complex. Having a qualified attorney help you decipher all the legal information can not only help your case but help you understand how your case affects others and how to prevent this kind of abuse from reoccurring in the future. We have years of experience helping people just like you and your family with their nursing home abuse cases. We will apply the full weight of our skills and experience to your claim and help you get the settlement or award you need to move on.
• We know insurance companies. Insurance companies don’t always operate above-board. They will do what they need to do to protect their company’s bottom line and their customer from liability. They will sometimes use methods that seek to lessen your or your family’s injuries or minimize your overall experience, such as telling you that you don’t really need a lawyer for this type of inadequate medical care or offering a quick cash settlement to get you to drop any claim against their customer. They hope that you won’t notice the amount is far below what you deserve. We’ve dealt with these tactics for years and can help you navigate around them to get the compensation you need.
• Objectivity. Witnessing a family member go through an experience like this is not easy, and trying to build a comprehensive injury claim while under extreme emotional distress doesn’t help the situation. You may feel angry, frustrated, depressed, or shocked that this could even happen while trying to collect documents and gather evidence to support your claim. When you hire an attorney, we deal with the facts. We will take an objective viewpoint and help you build a clear, complete claim that is grounded in evidence, so you don’t have to.
• We handle the hard stuff. If you’re going through this situation, chances are you’ve already had to remove a family member from the nursing home that provided inadequate care and are helping them get treatment for the injuries that were ignored while you look for another care facility for them. You’ve got enough to worry about without filing a claim or lawsuit. When you hire a reputable attorney, we carry the burden of the work. We can investigate the injury, investigate the facility, interview witnesses, and gather evidence. We can handle any and all communication regarding the claim with the insurance company or any other concerned party. We will take the lead in negotiating a settlement. This allows you to get back to doing the important work of caring for your injured loved one or recovering from the abusive experience.
• We know how to assess damages. Filing a claim for compensation takes experience when determining the value of specific damages or losses. You can certainly come up with a number for economic damages, like the cost of the nursing home or medical bills for treatment of ignored injuries, but when it comes to non-economic damages, like pain and suffering or emotional distress, you need an experienced attorney. A good lawyer can review past cases and help you reach a number that covers all your losses, not just the economic ones.
• We stay by your side until it’s over. An attorney isn’t just there to provide sound legal advice. We will also act as your advocate should your case go to trial. If the insurance company for the nursing home does not approve your claim, you may think your only option if you don’t have a lawyer is to continue negotiation and hope for a better outcome. If you have an attorney, the game changes. This signals to the insurance company that you will go to a trial by jury if necessary to get the compensation you deserve. The insurance company will have to review their cost-benefit analysis to see if spending the money to defend their insured from litigation is more costly than providing a fair settlement for your damages. Going to court is expensive, and this can shift the odds of getting a good settlement for your claim.

Why Hire Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP for My Insufficient Medical Care Nursing Home Abuse?

Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP attorneys have been helping Alabama residents get compensation for their injuries for over twenty years. We have experience in all areas of personal injury law, from dog bite claims to wrongful death lawsuits.

We know Alabama because we’re from here. Our firm’s founders, Ken Riley and Kirby Farris, both Alabama natives, are both recognized by SuperLawyers.com as top attorneys in the state and in the country. They also share their love and knowledge of the law every week by underwriting a live, 30-minute call-in show called LawCall that answers questions about the law and provides guidance to residents of Birmingham and across North Central Alabama.

The best reason to hire Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP for your insufficient medical care case is that we get results for our clients. We have successfully obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for our past clients. We can’t guarantee that we’ll have that success with every client, but we can guarantee that we will provide compassionate and competent legal counsel on every case we take on, along with the determination to fight for you until the very end.

There’s no need to take our word for it. Head over to our Testimonials page to hear from some of our past clients about the level of service we provide.

Signs and Symptoms of Insufficient Medical Care

Insufficient medical care cases can be hard to prove. Like other cases of nursing home abuse, they are rarely reported. This can happen for many reasons. Nursing home residents may be unable or unwilling to talk about abuse for fear of repercussion, and unless someone actually witnessed a caretaker refusing to provide assistance to a resident or otherwise neglecting their duty, proving that neglect can be difficult.

It’s for this reason that recognizing signs of abuse or insufficient medical care is essential to preventing it and stopping it from continuing once it’s begun.

Watch for these signs of insufficient medical care or abuse in a nursing home:

• Unexplained injuries
• Malnutrition
• Declining health
• Withdrawal from friends and family
• Anxiety or depression
• Lack of personal hygiene
• Unsanitary living conditions
• Unwillingness to ask caretakers for help

Call Today for a Free Consultation

If you or a family member has suffered injuries because of a nursing home’s negligence, don’t wait any longer. Call Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP today at (205) 324-1212 for a free, no-obligation consultation to see if an injury claim or lawsuit for damages can help you get compensation.

We want to help you to get justice for the injuries your loved one suffered, as well as prevent the nursing home employees from hurting anyone else. Contact Farris, Riley & Pitt, LLP today.