Pressure injuries, also called bedsores, develop when a resident is not turned and repositioned on schedule, and a wound that reaches muscle or bone is almost always preventable. Falls happen when a resident assessed as a fall risk is left without the supervision, bed alarm, or assistance the care plan called for. Dehydration and malnutrition show up as weight loss, confusion, and urinary tract infections. Medication errors include missed doses, wrong doses, and sedatives given to keep a resident quiet. Elopement is a resident with dementia leaving the building unnoticed. Physical, sexual, and financial abuse by staff or other residents also occurs. Unexplained bruises, a sudden change in mood, or a facility that discourages visits are reasons to ask hard questions.
Nursing homes that accept Medicare or Medicaid, which is nearly all of them, must comply with the federal regulations in 42 CFR Part 483. Those rules require a comprehensive assessment of each resident, a written care plan, enough nursing staff to carry it out, and specific measures to prevent pressure injuries, falls, weight loss, and accidents. A facility’s own policies and the Indiana Department of Health survey findings fill in the rest. Understaffing is the root of most neglect, and staffing records almost always show it: too few aides on the floor, mandatory overtime, and agency staff who do not know the residents. We obtain the payroll-based staffing data the facility reports to the federal government and compare it to what the care plans required.
The records that prove a case are the care plan, the MDS assessments the facility files with Medicare, nursing notes, wound-care and weight logs, medication administration records, incident reports, and staffing schedules. We request all of them, and we request them quickly. Suspected neglect or abuse should be reported to Indiana Adult Protective Services and, for a licensed facility, to the Indiana Department of Health, which can send a surveyor. Many admission agreements contain an arbitration clause signed by a family member in a stack of paperwork on move-in day. Federal rules limit how facilities may use those clauses, and whether a particular clause is enforceable depends on who signed it and how. We review the admission packet before deciding how to proceed.
When neglect leads to a resident’s death, the claim becomes a wrongful death action brought by the personal representative of the estate, and the recoverable damages depend on which Indiana wrongful death statute applies. We can open the estate if that has not been done. Nursing home litigation is a specialized field with its own experts, its own discovery battles, and corporate defendants that own dozens of facilities. We evaluate every case and, where it serves the client, work with co-counsel who concentrate on nursing home litigation, so that the family has both a firm it knows and the depth the case demands. You won’t owe us a fee unless we recover, and when the case resolves, you get the check and we handle the bills, including any Medicaid or Medicare claim against the recovery.
In Indiana, most personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the date of injury (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4). Claims against a city, county, or state agency require a formal tort claim notice much sooner, in some cases within 180 days. Waiting costs leverage, and in some cases it costs the claim entirely.
We represent injured people everywhere in Indiana. Most of an injury case happens by phone, email, and video, so you do not need to live near one of our offices to work with us.
Injury cases are handled on a contingency fee: no retainer, no hourly bill, and no attorney fee unless we recover money for you. The percentage is set in a written agreement before we start and depends on the stage at which the case resolves. How contingency fees work, in plain English.
A decorated U.S. Army veteran who set his sights on the law at age eight, James has represented hundreds of injured clients with a modern, client-first style and a refusal to let insurance companies run out the clock.
Often, yes. Pressure injuries are largely preventable with repositioning, nutrition, and skin checks, and a wound that advances to a deep stage usually means the care plan was not followed. The records will show what was done and what was not.
Not necessarily. Enforceability depends on who signed, what authority they had, and whether the facility complied with federal rules governing those agreements. We review the admission packet before any decision is made.
Indiana Adult Protective Services, and for a licensed facility the Indiana Department of Health. Reporting protects your family member and others, and it does not affect your right to bring a claim.
We evaluate every case, and where it serves the client we work with co-counsel who concentrate on nursing home litigation. Either way, you have one point of contact and one fee.
Five minutes on the phone and you will know where you stand. You will not owe us a fee unless we recover money for you, and the bills get handled before the check does.