Hixson Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
Even though many Americans rely on nursing homes to care for elderly loved ones, nursing home abuse is unfortunately all too common. Many are devastated to learn that their family member has been taken advantage of or mistreated by people trusted—and paid—to care for him or her.
State law provides a way for you to hold abusers accountable, and you do not have to fight alone to take advantage of it. If you or a loved one has experienced abuse in a nursing home, consider getting in touch with our dedicated personal injury attorneys. A Hixson nursing home abuse lawyer could be able to help you with navigating the complicated legal system and pursuing a positive result for your case.
Legal Rules Impacting Nursing Home Abuse Victims
Under Tennessee law, the primary means of bringing a legal challenge against a nursing home is to bring a negligence claim. To succeed with a negligence claim, a plaintiff must prove the defendant had a duty of care to act reasonably under the circumstances, breached his or her duty of care in a way that directly resulted in preventable harm, and caused the plaintiff to suffer compensable damages.
Nursing home administrators and staff owe a duty of care to their patients, so a plaintiff may be able to bring a negligence claim against an individual nurse or the nursing home itself. For instance, if a nursing home continuously fails to change a patient’s bandage which results in an infection, the act could be enough to bring a negligence claim.
A Tennessee plaintiff can also create the presumption of negligence by using the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. Tennessee Code §29-26-115 allows the plaintiff of a case stemming from a medical accident to create a rebuttable presumption that the defendant was negligent. The plaintiff must show that “the instrumentality causing injury was in the defendant’s exclusive control” and that the accident would not usually occur without negligence.
A Hixson attorney could work to apply this legal principle to a nursing home abuse case. For instance, it may be possible to show that the care provided by the nursing home to the plaintiff caused his or her injury and that it would not have happened without some form of negligence.
Damages a Plaintiff May Be Able to Recover For
Damages are the monetary award that a court can grant the plaintiff in a successful civil claim. There are typically two types of recoverable damages: economic damages and non-economic damages. The former type is the damages that the plaintiff directly and measurably suffered—for instance, medical bills related to injuries resulting from a nurse negligently failing to check on a nursing home resident.
In contrast, a court may award non-economic damages for losses like pain and suffering, which are generally much more difficult to prove the value of given the intangible nature of the harm done. An experienced nursing home negligence lawyer in Hixson could provide a plaintiff the help he or she needs to measure his or her damages effectively and possibly determine if there are exceptions to compensation caps in his or her case.
Call a Hixson Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Today
The harm from a reckless or indifferent nursing home is real and all too common. However, there is hope for those who want to fight for his or her right—or that of a loved one—to fair treatment, as Tennessee civil law provides a means to seek compensation for this type of abuse.
A Hixson nursing home abuse lawyer may help ensure you or a loved one can recover financially for damages someone else caused him or her to suffer needlessly. Do not take a risk by filing your claim on your own—call today to set up an initial consultation.
