Nursing Home Resident Rights
My name is Ed Smith. I am a Sacramento Nursing Home Negligence Lawyer. Do you need an attorney because you or someone close to you has been denied their nursing home resident rights? I handle nursing home abuse cases and fight arbitration clauses that patients are sometimes forced into signing. Abuse or negligence toward an elderly family member in a nursing home or long-term care facility is a travesty. I have a particular interest in making sure that those who deny your family members their nursing home rights are punished.
New Rule Announced Protecting Nursing Home Residents
Residents’ Rights in California Nursing Homes are being protected by a new rule announced by the Center for Medicare & medicaid services (CMS), the division of the U.S. Department of Health, and Human Services responsible for overseeing long-term care facilities. This new rule prohibits the use of binding arbitration as a method for resolving nursing home residents’ disputes with their facilities. Moving forward, the new rules dictate that the rights of residents’ and their families are extended to suing nursing homes for such grievances as lack of care, personal injuries, among other legitimate legal complaints.
What Happened Before the New Rule?
Prior to the new rules, contracts signed initially by residents with their individual facilities forced them to agree that instead of a traditional lawsuit, disputes with the facility would be handled by binding arbitration. Since residents of nursing homes already consist of a vulnerable population that makes up a sizable number of American citizens, it is important to protect their rights and make sure that they receive every opportunity for the best possible care available to them.
What is a Binding Arbitration Agreement?
Binding Arbitraton provides parties with an alternative dispute resolution to litigation by employing an arbitrator as a “neutral” third party, and allowing them to decide the outcome of the dispute. In binding arbitration, both parties sacrifice their legal remedies and rights to file a lawsuit and opt for an arbitrator instead, essentially “binding” them to the arbitrator’s decision. If the other party violates or breaches a contract with an arbitration clause, choices of the non-breaching party are substantially limited.
Why do Businesses Like Nursing Homes Prefer Binding Arbitration?
Businesses like nursing homes prefer arbitration because it skips the jury and goes with an arbitrator who is likely to side with the business and betray residents’ interests. Arbitration is not as fair as the jury system because arbitrators are contracted by big businesses, generating a conflict of interest between the arbitrator’s desire to maintain good relations with the firms they represent and dealing ethically and justly with abuses of nursing home residents’ rights. If you have a loved one who has suffered an injury in an assisted living facility or nursing home contact an experienced attorney.
Nursing Home Negligence & Abuse Attorneys Sacramento
I’m Ed Smith, a Sacramento Nursing Home Abuse lawyer. If you or someone you love has suffered abuse or negligence, please call me now at 916-921-6400 or 800-404-5400 for free, friendly advice.
I have been helping Sacramento families recover compensation for their personal injuries and wrongful death lawsuits for more than 34 years.
I am listed with other top trial US Trial Lawyers in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Attorneys belonging to the forum have garnered multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts for their clients.
See my long history of successful Verdicts and Settlements.
Why not see what others in the community have to say about working with me and my friendly staff. Find out here: Yelp, Avvo and Google.
Image Attribution: Courtesy of Stephen Craven, via Wikimedia commons
Source of Nursing Home Resident Rights – http://ltcombudsman.org/uploads/files/support/Module-2.pdf
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