When our loved ones are mistreated in a nursing home we trusted to keep them safe and cared for, we may feel a swarm of emotions, least of all hurt. However, when it is found or suspected that the nursing home acted with a degree of intent, malice, or gross negligence, we could feel horrified and exceptional ire. Fortunately, there are forms of compensation that are also used as punishment for people or organizations that act in this manner. Punitive damages in Chattanooga nursing home abuse cases, while useful for deterring and punishing behavior like this, are exceptionally difficult to substantiate in civil court. Because of this, victims or the family of victims need to retain the employ of experienced attorneys who know how to petition for this form of compensation.
Exemplary Losses Defined by Chattanooga Law
Punitive damages, also known as exemplary losses, are money awards from a jury to punish a defendant. They are different from economic or non-economic damages. The intent of punitive damages is to teach the defendant a lesson and to make him or her pay an amount of money that would discourage him or her to engage in the same behavior again. This would hopefully also discourage any other potential defendants from engaging in similar behavior in the future.
Circumstances for Monetary Punishments in Chattanooga Nursing Home Abuse Cases
Punitive damages in Chattanooga nursing home abuse cases are awarded when the jury finds that the nursing home acted intentionally, recklessly or wantonly. If there is a reckless disregard for the safety of the patients, a wanton disregard for the safety of the patients, or intentional harm inflicted on the patients, punitive damages could be awarded.
How These Awards Are Calculated
Contrary to what people may or may not believe, punitive damages are calculated by the jury or finder-of-fact, which would be the judge if a trail is without a jury.
Punitive damages in Chattanooga nursing home abuse cases are calculated using many different sources of information including the severity or the egregiousness of the conduct, how bad the conduct was, how bad the harm that the conduct caused was, and to what extent could the wrongdoer pay. Punitive damages are often set in accordance with how much a defendant has available to give.
If a nursing home has hundreds of facilities and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, that amount of revenue could be taken into consideration when deciding how much money would be required as punitive damages to punish the defendant.
How Chattanooga Injury Attorneys Handle Cases with Punitive Damages
Chattanooga injury lawyers often do types of investigation, discovery, and expert preparation on a punitive damages case. In addition to routine investigations and litigations, attorneys often add to the amount of work that they normally do on a case investigating the defendant’s sciences, investigating their corporate structure, investigating their profit and loss, their revenues, the number of people they have, and the earnings of their executives to uncover the necessary trial evidence and the evidence that could be seen favorably to a jury to prove that punitive damages are appropriate and appropriate.
Reach Out and Retain the Employ of a Chattanooga Nursing Home Attorney
Punitive damages require specific types of evidence that must be offered to the court and are not easily demonstratable. Therefore, an individual needs a lawyer who understands exactly the type of evidence that is required in order to be able to recover punitive damages in Chattanooga nursing home abuse cases. A lawyer needs to know whether the case is an appropriate case for punitive damages, how to prove those punitive damages, and how to argue those punitive damages to punish the defendant.
While we all know that monetary awards could never take away the abuse you or a loved one has suffered, these damages could dissuade future actions by similar, potential defendants in the future. Reach out to an attorney today to begin a confidential consultation.
