Nursing Home Abuse Attorney and What You Need to Know

If you're thinking about hiring a nursing home abuse attorney to file a suit against a facility that has taken improper care or displayed negligence while trusted with a loved one, you should know exactly what you're getting into. First of all, filing a suit when you have a legitimate case is a noble cause and can do more than simply recover damages. You can shed a light on a facility that is failing to take care of those under their charge. When you do that, you make it less likely that others will choose that facility for themselves. If things are happening inside those walls that have driven you to seek a lawyer, this should strike you as a good thing, even if it is only a byproduct. Before you start your search, here are some things you should know.

First of all, don't let the facility or their insurance company tell you that you don't have a case. In fact, don't let anyone tell you that, except for a nursing home abuse attorney. If you think you have sufficient cause to go forward, let an experienced lawyer look at the case and decide what you have. With enough years in the field, they will be able to tell nearly instantly if you have a justifiable reason to go forward. Since many of these lawyers work on a contingency basis, their standards may actually be rather high when deciding which cases to take. So if a lawyer is telling you that you have a good case and the insurance company or health facility is telling you that you don't, you know which one to trust.

While no one should go into a lawsuit with the idea of getting rich from the award, an expert nursing home abuse attorney can tell you that the awards in these cases are often substantial. Of course, most of the current figures available for research are nearly a decade old and there has been significant tort reform in that period. Depending on where you live, your state may have put a cap on punitive damages or even done away with them altogether. Still, if you and a nursing home abuse attorney can put together a confident case filled with evidence, there is little reason why you shouldn't be able to recover medical expenses and possibly the money you paid the facility.

Be prepared for a fight. Insurance companies will fight back with everything they have, even if you thought you had a case that couldn't be argued against. No case is without two sides to a story, even if one side is rather incredible and fallacious. Find a good nursing home abuse attorney and gather all of the evidence you can before moving forward.