NJ & PA Nursing Home Lawyers Fight for the Rights of Elderly Residents Who Are Not Properly Supervised
Serving Clients in Trenton & Pennington, NJ
As the loved one of a nursing home or assisted living facility resident, you probably worry about their well-being and capacity to withstand a trying circumstance. Families who place their elderly loved ones in a nursing home have high expectations for the facilities. After all, you’re probably paying quite a lot of money to ensure that your loved one is being cared for properly. However, far too many nursing homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have been disappointing families in recent years. It is the facility’s legal duty to provide a high standard of care and protect the security and safety of its residents at all times. Unfortunately, for many reasons, facilities fail to meet this duty of care, and their negligence results in a resident becoming lost or injured. When a nursing home leaves an elderly resident unattended, bad things can happen. For example, many elderly residents are seriously injured when they suffer a slip & fall after being allowed to wander around the nursing home unsupervised.
Your loved one deserves to be kept safe. When a nursing home fails in its duty of care, the results can be devastating. If your loved one has been injured due to elopement or abandonment by the assisted living facility staff, the experienced nursing home negligence lawyers at Cohen & Riechelson are prepared to stand up for your loved one and demand that they be treated properly. We’ve represented countless resident abandonment cases in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, so we know what it takes to ensure favorable results in your case. Contact our attorneys at (609) 528-2596 today for a free consultation to learn how we can help you recover financial damages for their injuries, pain, and suffering.
What Constitutes Abandonment and Elopement under NJ Law?
Resident abandonment is a facility staff’s or administration’s failure to provide appropriate care and supervision for its residents on site. Many individuals at nursing care facilities require additional supervision and security measures to keep them safe and these nursing home residents should not be left unattended for long periods of time. Physically delicate or disabled residents are more likely to be injured when they are allowed to move about the facility unsupervised. When a resident is abandoned, it is often due to a failure on the part of nursing home staff or administrators. Resident abandonment is a violation of both state and federal nursing home laws.
Elopement occurs when a resident wanders off and leaves the nursing home grounds due to lack of supervisory measures. Residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, for example, are at a heightened risk of wandering off and becoming disoriented. This often occurs when a resident is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia and loses their bearings about their surroundings. It is more likely to occur with individuals who are prone to disorientation, though residents who simply want to feel a bit of freedom and exercise may elope the grounds as well.
Serious Consequences of Nursing Home Abandonment and Elopement for Elderly Residents
Nursing home resident abandonment and elopement can have serious consequences. An elderly person has a high risk of injury and even death when they are unsupervised while walking in unfamiliar areas. They might also be more prone to slipping and falling, whether on the nursing home grounds or elsewhere. And a diverse set of residents face heightened risk of severe consequences when an accident or injury such as a slip-and-fall is not seen and addressed immediately.
Liability of Assisted Living Facilities who Fail to Adequately Supervise their Residents in NJ
Assisted living and nursing facilities owe a legal duty of care to provide a safe and secure environment for each one of their residents. For a facility to uphold their legal duty of care, quality administration, adequate resources, sufficient staffing, and caring employees are required. Nursing home staff needs to remain vigilant when it comes to ensuring that residents are cared for and properly supervised. Additionally, equipment such as door locks, alarms, and call bells should be kept within reach and in working order at all times. Unfortunately, there are countless scenarios in which at least one of these essentials is not met.
Residents face unique needs and diverse challenges, sometimes including cognitive impairment and physical frailness or vulnerability. Facilities, too, face limitations that increase the risk of resident abandonment or elopement, including inadequate staffing and lack of proper security systems or measures. When a nursing home staff or administrators act negligently, resident abandonment becomes more likely. In these cases, the only way to ensure that the problem does not keep happening may be to speak with an experienced nursing home negligence lawyer who can hold the nursing home accountable for their failures.
Family members of individuals in assisted living and nursing facilities must know their rights so they can spring into action when their loved one elopes or is injured due to facility abandonment or elopement. A facility can be held liable for negligence in such a case and be held responsible for paying damages resulting from the accident or injury.
Legal Action for Families who Loved Ones Wander Off or are Abandoned at NJ Nurses Homes
If your loved one has been abandoned by their care providers or eloped the grounds due to negligence on the part of the facility, it is important to contact a long-term care facility negligence attorney immediately. Our dedicated lawyers will walk you through the process of filing a complaint with the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman or the State Department of Health, which oversees long-term care facilities. We can also help you pursue a lawsuit against the liable party.
From a legal standpoint, winning these cases requires experience and skill because a nursing home is unlikely to admit culpability for a resident’s injury. An experienced nursing home attorney at Cohen & Riechelson can help you. With our decades of experience, our nursing home negligence lawyers are prepared to develop a strong case against an assisted living or nursing care facility that has not upheld their duty of care to your loved one. In most cases, a facility will strongly deny liability, and as such, you need skilled legal support to prove negligence beyond a reasonable doubt so you can settle out of court or win in court and do justice for your loved one.
Call CR Today; Protect Your Loved One against Nursing Home Resident Abandonment and Elopement in New Jersey or Pennsylvania
When you place an elderly family member in a nursing home, you expect that they will be taken care of and properly supervised at all times. If your family member’s needs are not being met by nursing home staff, you need to take immediate action to protect their health and their rights.
Call Cohen & Riechelson today at (609) 528-2596, or use our online contact form to schedule a free, in-person consultation. We stand up for victims of nursing home neglect, abuse, and abandonment in Princeton, Hightstown, Hamilton, Lawrence, Ewing, Robbinsville, Trenton, East Windsor, and other areas of New Jersey. Our knowledgeable nursing home negligence attorneys are here to provide professional legal guidance and strong advocacy.
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