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Important Reasons to Make a Claim against an Abusive Nursing Home

In my twenty eight years working as an attorney, the most horrific stories I listen to are those involving the Nursing Home Abuse Cases. I recall clearly when attending high school more than twenty five years ago we were shown film on abusive care provided in nursing homes. We saw the personal injury that resulted. It is stomach turning when I hear the stories about loved ones that are abused and injured by careless nurses and due to abusive nursing home policies. We place our confidence in these nursing homes and our families are entitled to a proper level of professionalism and caring by the nurses who take an oath to provide careful medical attention to the elderly and infirm.

There are two good reasons to hire an Experienced Las Vegas Nursing Home Abuse attorney and to bring a claim against a careless Las Vegas Nursing Home. The first reason is to win money against the Abusive Nursing Home. The second is to send a clear message to the Abusive Las Vegas Nursing Home that Carelessness and Abusive Nursing Care that causes personal injury to our family members and loved ones will not be condoned. You should stand up for the elderly and sick nursing patients that cannot protect their own legal rights. The only way to stop future Nursing Home Abuse from causing personal injury to other people is to make a claim against a Las Vegas Nursing Home and affect them where it stings: In their wallet. You should force the Las Vegas nursing home and their insurance company to pay money so the Nursing Home Owners require their nursing staff to provide the required level of care to prevent personal injury from happening. An insurance company that is forced to pay out tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a claim will require the nursing home to show they will be more careful or the insurance company will refuse to renew the insurance policy. They will not allow abusive care that causes claims to be brought against the insured nursing home. The Insurance rates for the nursing home will increase after a nursing home personal injury claim is paid out, which will cause the nursing home manager to demand more careful medical care for the nursing home patients.

Hire a Las Vegas Attorney with Nursing Home Abuse Claim Experience

It is helpful to hire a Las Vegas attorney experienced in handling Nursing Home Abuse cases. Nursing Home Abuse cases are worked on in a similar fashion to Las Vegas Medical Malpractice cases. Of greatest importance is to realize that the statute of limitations which limits the time for bringing a Las Vegas Nursing Home claim is One Year but can be extended under limited reasons for some additional years. There would need to be a valid legal reason why the personal injury and abuse could not have been uncovered, or we would need to show facts were intentionally hidden to prevent uncovering the nursing home abuse. It is not easy to get the Judge to side with an argument to extend the one year statute of limitations. The one year is a bar date meaning the case must be settled OR a complaint filed within one year. If not, or if your Las Vegas attorney files your complaint after one year, the Las Vegas Nursing Home Abuse Defense attorney will file a legal motion with an “affirmative defense” and ask the court to throw out your case. Call Jack G. Bernstein, Esq. now * with twenty eight years  experience at 702-434-4444 or 1-888-529-4529 toll free, or my legal partner, Scott L. Poisson, Esq. with eighteen years of experience at the numbers listed (we personally answer our calls), or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for a free consultation of your case.

Critical Nursing Expert Affidavit Required Under Nevada Law

To deal with a nursing home abuse case correctly, your attorney needs to read all of the relevant medical records from the nursing home. (If possible, to speed up the review of your case, it is smart to get a complete copy of the nursing home medical chart). The nursing home medical records must be read by a nurse expert to figure out whether the information contained in them (or often intentionally not written down) reveals nursing care that falls below the reasonable and customary standard of care in the Las Vegas nursing community. If the nurse reviewing the medical records forms an opinion that there was abusive nursing care that directly caused a personal injury to the patient, he or she will then sign an affidavit setting out those facts and state that there was abuse at the nursing home which fell below the Las Vegas nursing standard of reasonable care. The affidavit swearing to the abuse at the Las Vegas Nursing Home MUST be attached to the complaint filed in Court or the judge will be forced to dismiss the Las Vegas Nursing Home Abuse Case from court. If one year already passed under the statute of limitations (or the extended period if applicable), your Las Vegas Attorney will not be allowed to file the complaint in court a second time.

Typical Nursing Home Abuse Situations

Some Las Vegas nursing home abuse cases that we watch for  are those where Nursing Home Care falls below the standard of care (where the nursing staff was not reasonably careful) causing your family member to develop a bed sore. Four stages of bed sores exist. Nurses must shift patients who are unable to shift themselves voluntarily every two hours to prevent the development of pressure sores also known as bed sores. A Stage One Pressure sore happens when the skin begins to get bruised and shows a reddish color. The fourth stage is the most painful bedsore. In this stage the bedsore may cause a hole to get so deep bone may be visible. After development of a bedsore it is very hard for the nurses and doctors to heal the personal injury. Often the doctor must perform a painful medical procedure known as debridement to allow the bedsore to get better.

Another situation where Las Vegas nursing homes are responsible for patients injuries are when they fall. If the patient has a difficult time walking he or she needs to be assisted while walking and helped in and out of the wheelchair and the bed. The nurse should give support to prevent a patient from falling down. Many times when an elderly or disabled patient falls they suffer broken bones and many times break the hip. When the patient has fallen more than one time, there is a clear signal that the nurse was negligent. Several times I have handled cases where the Nurse had dropped a patient while helping them move from a bed to the wheel chair or a bed to another one.

Watch out for Nursing Home Abuse and neglect where a patient has choked to death after a nursing home knew the patient had difficulty swallowing and was given bulky food.  In some Las Vegas nursing home negligence cases the patient was found to be suffering from dehydration and was literally starving due to malnutrition.

Things You Can Do To Help Prevent Nursing Home Abuse

Visiting your loved one often at the Nursing Home will signal to the Nursing Home staff that you are paying attention to the safety of your family member.

The State of Nevada will look into any Las Vegas Nursing Home negligence and abuse case which causes a severe personal injury or death to the patient. The department of health which issues the license to the Las Vegas Nursing Home will assign a case management worker who will write a report and document the nursing home negligence and abuse.

Our Las Vegas personal injury attorneys have skill with working on nursing home negligence cases against abusive Las Vegas Nursing Homes. We will talk with you to go over your case at no charge. Our Las Vegas injury attorneys win attorney fees only if we recover money for your loved one who suffered a personal injury due to the negligence of a Las Vegas Nursing Home. It helps us present the case to the judge and jury if you photograph the personal injury and any bed sore. (A picture is worth more than a thousand words)

The Las Vegas Attorneys at Jack Bernstein and Associates known as Bernstein and Poisson are only permitted to represent your family member for the Las Vegas Nursing Home’s negligence if we have the Nevada bar contract signed first. If coherent, the patient who suffered a personal injury due to the Nursing Home’s negligence can sign the Nevada bar contract which allows our Las Vegas personal injury attorneys to work on your case. If not coherent, whoever has the power of attorney can sign the Nevada bar contract. If no power of attorney was given by the patient to someone, we will have a judge appoint someone to be the guardian over the person so that person can sign giving us permission to work on the nursing home abuse case.

Don’t try to work with an insurance claims adjuster who contacts you to settle the Las Vegas Nursing Home Negligence case by yourself. It helps to have a attorney who has skills in working on Las Vegas Nursing Home Negligence cases. Most times the claims adjuster on Nursing Home Negligence cases is highly skilled in directing the outcome so that the will pay the smallest possible amount or nothing at all. One of the strongest reasons that prompts an insurance adjuster to pay the maximum value is their worry that an experienced Las Vegas Personal injury attorney who has handled many Las Vegas Nursing Home Negligence cases will bring a lawsuit in the Clark County Courthouse causing them to pay a defense attorney. These defense firms will often bill the nursing home insurance company several hundred dollars per hour totaling thousands of dollars each month which will continue until the case is finished.

Federal Law contained in Federal Medicare Statutes requires reimbursement to the government when money is won against a negligent Las Vegas Nursing Home. The Federal government gets paid back only for the medical care directly needed because of the nursing home abuse. In other words, they don’t get paid back for the cost of nursing home care that would have been provided due to the original reason the person was in the nursing home. There is a formula under the law used for calculating the amount to be repaid. The amount paid back is lowered by the same attorney fee percentage that you have to pay the Las Vegas Nursing Home Abuse attorneys firm. There is an additional reduction for any cost money used to win the case against the nursing home such as paying a nurse expert her fee and for the fees the sheriff charges to serve the lawsuit on the nursing home. If the person dies as a result of the personal injury suffered in a negligent Las Vegas Nursing Home, the estate may recover money for their death. The Federal law might require some money to be paid back to the Medicare program for payments made over the person’s lifetime. The insurance company will not issue a settlement check without putting Medicare on the check. It is time consuming and a challenge for the Las Vegas personal injury attorney to work out the repayment with the Federal Government in these cases.

If the person dies due to the Las Vegas Nursing Home negligence, Nevada law gives us one year to file the lawsuit according to the statute of limitation. The “heirs” are the ones under the Nevada wrongful death law to get money for the loss of their family member. Numerous factors are involved in determining the amount. You need to know that handling a case against a Negligent Las Vegas Nursing Home requires a attorney with experience in these personal injury cases since they are very sophisticated to handle. It requires a skilled personal injury attorney to win the most money for your family member who is allowed to recover money against the negligent nursing home for their injury claim. Heirs include spouses under Nevada’s Wrongful Death law. Children may also be defined as “heirs” and recover money for the loss of their parent.

This is not an all inclusive review of the laws concerning Las Vegas Nursing Home Negligence cases. I have written this article to give you some idea of how complex these cases and laws are so you realize how important it is to hire an experienced Las Vegas  Nursing Home negligence attorney early on to represent your injured family member. Call Jack G. Bernstein, Esq. with twenty eight years  experience at 702-434-4444 or 1-888-529-4529 toll free, or my legal partner, Scott L. Poisson, Esq. with eighteen years of experience at the numbers listed (we personally answer our calls), or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for a free consultation of your case. We only get paid if we win money damages for the personal injury sustained. If we don’t win money, you will be charged for our work.