Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer in Los Angeles: Former Insurance Defense Attorneys

Nursing home neglect lawyer in Los Angeles from Lederer & Nojima is for residents and families who are seeing bedsores, falls, weight loss or missed care and want to know whether the facility failed them, so you can act on the evidence before the records change.

The injuries that point to neglect are often the same ones: pressure injuries (bedsores) that reach deep tissue, falls with fractures, dehydration and weight loss, urinary and other infections, medication errors, unwitnessed wandering, and injuries from restraints or rough handling. One incident can be an accident. A pattern across weeks calls for investigation into staffing and whether the care plan was followed, though it does not prove either by itself.

Neglect cases are built on documents. We look at the resident's care plan, nursing notes, medication administration records, minimum data set assessments, incident reports and staffing schedules for the days in question, and at the facility's state inspection and complaint history. Those records show whether the care that was promised was the care that was delivered.

David Lederer and John Nojima spent years on the defense side of injury cases. They know what a facility's lawyers look for first, and they prepare the case with that in mind.

Health and Safety Code section 1276.65 generally requires covered skilled nursing facilities to provide at least 3.5 direct care service hours per patient day, subject to statutory facility exclusions and applicable waivers. Residents also have rights under state law and regulation, and Health and Safety Code section 1430 allows a resident to sue a licensee for violating those rights, with up to $500 for each violation plus costs and attorney's fees for violations on or after March 1, 2021.

Where neglect is reckless or worse, the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657) can add attorney's fees and other remedies. Many personal injury claims have a two year deadline under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, adult professional negligence claims generally must be filed within one year after actual or reasonably discoverable knowledge of the injury or three years after injury, whichever occurs first and subject to statutory exceptions, and injury claims against public entities generally require a government claim within six months after accrual.