Colorado Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence Attorneys

Why do we sue nursing homes and assisted living facilities?

We sue nursing homes because they must be held accountable. The government regulates them but does not much act on what it finds. Nursing homes are cited, re-cited, then re-licensed but then inevitably allowed to continue to operate. Very few are closed. Occasionally they are fined.

John's own personal experience with his mother being neglected in a nursing home lead to his interest in this area. He was in law school at U.C.L.A. His mother was in a coma and needed only to be frequently repositioned. Because she was not, she quickly developed a pie sized pressure ulcer on her spine, which he discovered when he picked her up to hug her. We understand the permanent feelings that come from such experiences.

We have been engaged over the years in numerous public interest challenges concerning the rights of disabled and elderly persons. This has evolved as well into a practice redressing serious and profound injuries and deaths to such persons. A major part of our practice is devoted to doing just that.

We helped to establish the legal right to high quality nursing and rehabilitation care services for nursing home residents in safe, sanitary, accessible environments that maintain and promote the exercise and retention of their civil rights.

We did this in the landmark nursing home lawsuit against the Federal government, in Smith v. Heckler, which struck down the previous nursing home inspection system and replaced it with a patient focused survey process and also contributed to the development and passage of the OBRA '87, the Nursing Home Reform Act. John served on one of the Institute of Medicine committees responsible for the recommendations to Congress that culminated in the passage of OBRA. The Smith case was also the subject of a Sunday Night Movie that focused on Michael Patrick Smith entitled 'When you Remember me' with Kevin Spacey and Fred Savage.

We believe that one of most important things that most nursing homes understand is money. We also believe that making nursing homes pay claims has the best and most realistic chance of holding them accountable. It is only when nursing home owners truly conclude that it is in their best economic interest to provide adequate care that conditions will change.

In 1975 a United States Senate Blue Ribbon Commission concluded after hearings in 25 cities that 1/2 of the nation's nursing homes were providing scandalously substandard care with life threatening conditions. Our experience representing victims of poor nursing home care and their families over the last 30 years has taught us that this has not changed. The litany of abuse continues.

We understand that entrusting a loved one to a nursing home is a difficult decision at best. We also understand the incredible sense of betrayal that we feel when our mothers or fathers or grandparents are neglected or abused. We understand that when this happens people need to speak out and hold these facilities accountable.

If you think you have a case please contact us or feel free to browse our Nursing Home Law FAQs.