If you are currently worried about the care of your elderly parent in a nursing home and you haven't gotten any information back from management about your complaints, it's time to talk to a lawyer. You are paying the facility a fee to take care of your parent, and to address the different concerns that you have. There are a lot of ways you can report the information to your lawyer accurately, and things that your lawyer will want to know. Do the following:
Keep a Journal
You need to start logging everything that happens that is against the law that you don't approve of, and that makes the nursing staff negligent. Any wrongdoings should be messaged in detail in the journal by you, another family member, or by your parent if you can trust them to keep the journal out of view of the employees that work in the home.
Document Your Complaints
If you have copies of electronic messages you've sent to the manager of the nursing home, or you have other proof of meetings that you've had, you want to have documented proof to show you've made complaints to the courts. You may be able to get the copies of these from the facility if they have to document all the complaints that are made against the facility.
Stop Reaching Out to Management
Don't make any threats to the management or staff at the facility about filing a lawsuit, about removing your parent from the care, or to indicate that you will take legal action in any way. You don't want them to start to build a defense, to try to cover their tracks with the harm that they've caused your parent, or to hide the neglect that was a problem. Keeping your information sealed and only for the lawyer is the best option.
These are just a few of the things that you'll want to do when you're ready to reach out to a lawyer about the issues that you've having with the care of your parent and when you want to take action against the nursing care facility. There are so many different types of lawsuits that you could file, depending on the severity of the neglect and the contract that the nursing home signed to care for your parent. Talk with a lawyer to find out how to start the filing process for your case. Click here to learn more.
Share4 January 2017
Like many people, I once found learning about law very intimidating. My brother went to law school and I remember glancing through a few of his books and wondering if I was actually reading English due to all of the legal jargon in them! However, when I ended up in a sticky legal situation due to accidentally breaking a small law I didn't know existed, I realized that I needed to learn more about the law, so I could make sure to follow it precisely in the future. My brother helped to break down some complicated legal concepts to me, and I have since been studying up online. I want to post what I have learned and continue to learn about law in the future on my new blog, so my knowledge cannot only help myself, but also help others!