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Dayton Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
Moving your loved one into a nursing home is never an easy choice. Although it can feel like you’re removing them from the comfort of their own home, or your home, it’s important that they get the fulltime care they need. When you choose the right facility for your loved one, they will feel just as much at home at their new facility as they did before. But sometimes, even when you think you made the right choice, your loved one could still endure abuse at the hands of a staff member or other resident.
No one should have to experience abuse, especially not in the place where they are supposed to receive care. With the help of a Dayton nursing home abuse lawyer, you can hold the abusive party or parties responsible for the mistreatment of your loved one. Bey & Associates will fight for your loved one’s rights and ensure that justice is served.
Nursing Home Bill of Rights in Ohio
Before you decide to file a claim, you might be wondering what rights your loved one has while they are in their long-term care facility. In the state of Ohio, the Nursing Home Bill of Rights states everything that you need to know. Ohio Revised Code §3721.13 is where your loved one’s rights fall under when they become a resident of a nursing home. It’s important for you to know their rights so that you can be aware of when they are being broken.
Here are some of the rights that your loved one has in their Ohio nursing home:
- The right to a clean living environment.
- The right to be free from physical, verbal, mental, sexual, and emotional abuse.
- The right to adequate and appropriate medical treatment.
- The right to have requests responded to promptly.
- The right to choose their own physician.
- The right to make decisions for their own life.
- The right to privacy in medical examinations.
- The right to refuse medical care.
- The right to be free from chemical and medical restraints.
- The right to practice their own religion.
- The right to private visits.
- The right to unrestricted communication via mail or telephone.
These are only a select few of the rights that your loved one has in their care facility, so if they have suffered from another form of mistreatment and you’re not sure if it’s a rights violation, our Dayton nursing home abuse lawyer can answer your questions. With our guidance, you can decide if you should file a complaint with the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). You should file a complaint as soon as the incident happens since ODH will not process a complaint if the incident happened more than a year ago.
If your loved one’s rights have been violated by their nursing home and you’ve already filed a complaint but want to take further action, then you could file a nursing home abuse claim against their facility. Bey & Associates will ensure that your loved one sees justice for their mistreatment.
Common Signs of Nursing Home Abuse
Even if you know the rights that your loved one has in their nursing home, you might not know what to look for to know that they are being abused. Whether your loved one is being abused physically, emotionally, sexually, or financially, they don’t deserve it. When you know what to look for, you can more easily spot the mistreatment of your loved one and will be able to report the abuse to the proper authorities.
In general, these are the most common signs of nursing home abuse of any form:
- Unexplained bruises or other injuries
- Untreated injuries
- Drastic weight loss
- Dehydration
- Poor hygiene
- Bedsores
- Socially withdrawn
- Easily agitated
These could be signs that your loved one is being abused physically, emotionally, or mentally. But there are other ways that your loved one could experience mistreatment in their long term care facility. Sexual abuse is one way they can be exploited. When your loved one does not consent to these acts, it is considered sexual abuse. Some signs of this are:
- Unexplained bruising around their genitals
- Unexplained sexually transmitted diseases and infections
- Torn clothing
- Depression
In nursing homes, your loved one is also vulnerable to being financially exploited. A staff member could take advantage of your loved one’s confused mental state or use threats to steal money or expensive objects from them. Here are some signs that your loved one in a nursing home is being financially abused:
- Unexplained transactions
- Names added to their bank account
- Changes in their will
- Missing valuables
Most of the signs above have something in common—they’re unexplained. If you notice that your questions are not met with valid explanations, you may begin to become suspicious of how your loved one is being treated in their nursing home. On the other hand, you should also be wary if a staff member offers you explanations that are too good to be true, or don’t seem right. This could signal that things aren’t right as well.
If you suspect that your loved one is not being treated correctly in their nursing home, you should get help from a Dayton nursing home abuse lawyer so that we can assist you through the legal process and launch an investigation. Your loved one deserves to be treated with proper care and respect, and we will see to it that they are compensated for any form of abuse that they endured.
How Attorneys’ Fees and Funding Work in a Personal Injury Case
At Bey & Associates, we handle lawyers’ fees on a contingency fee basis. What this means is that when we choose to accept your case, you owe us nothing unless you have a successful settlement or verdict. After a successful verdict or settlement, the contingency fees will come out of your winnings. This is usually at a certain percentage that’s agreed upon when you sign a contract with your lawyer.
Contingency fees allow an injured victim to get the legal representation they need. This is without having to pay upfront costs that they likely cannot afford due to their injury. Additionally, this lets victims take the time they need to choose their legal representation. It’s important to find an attorney that has the levels of experience required to help you.
Some state statutes limit the percentage that a lawyer can receive as a contingency fee. It’s also important to realize the fees you owe may also change as the case develops. A case that finalizes as a settlement, for example, may come with different fees than one that goes all the way to trial and finishes with a verdict. For that reason, most law firms and attorneys are willing to negotiate contingency fees. These negotiations may take place at multiple times based on the current stage of the case.
It’s common practice for your lawyer to receive the settlement check after finalization. This ensures they receive payment for their services. They will then send you a check for your share of the settlement award.
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