Twice this week I have turned down cases where a nursing home was clearly negligent. Why would we turn these hurting families away?
In Virginia you must prove two elements to successfuly pursue a claim of elder abuse or nursing home negligence. You must prove (1) that teh facility was negligent and (2) that their negligence directly caused the resident pain and suffering.
In both cases, the victims of elder abuse had pre-existing conditions that caused them pain and suffering. Although the facility failed to provide care, we couldn’t link the their negligence to physicial pain or suffering.
Is that fair? I am not sure – but it is the law in Virginia… So when you call our office regarding a nursing home abuse case, please note, we will have to investigate what damage was caused by the facility’s mistakes…