Santa Ana Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
Our compassionate elderly abuse attorneys can pursue a significant settlement if your loved one has been injured by abuse or neglect at a Santa Ana nursing home. Contact us now for a free consultation.
We have extensive experience suing the following facilities: Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Memory Care Facilities, Adult Day Care Centers, and more.
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Table of Contents:
- Why You Can Trust Our Santa Ana Nursing Home Neglect Lawyers with Your Loved One’s Case
- You Are Not Responsible for What the Nursing Home Did to Your Loved One
- Our Past Clients Are Glad They Trusted Lanzone Morgan, LLP
- We Get Justice for Victims of All Forms of Abuse and Neglect in Santa Ana Nursing Homes
- Who Files the Claim When Someone Is Injured in a Santa Ana Nursing Home?
- You May Be Entitled to Substantial Compensation for Nursing Home Abuse Injuries
- Who Is Responsible for Nursing Home Abuse and How Do You Prove It?
- How California Law Protects Nursing Home Patients
- What Goes On Behind Closed Doors in Santa Ana Care Facilities
- We Serve All of Santa Ana and the Surrounding Areas
- Statute of Limitations for Santa Ana Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits
- Let Our Santa Ana Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Get You the Justice You Deserve
- Meet Our Santa Ana Attorneys
Nursing home abuse can have devastating effects on a resident’s mental and physical health, but it often goes unreported and undetected for months or years. Nursing home residents are usually unable to speak for themselves or afraid they will lose care or experience worse treatment if they speak up. In many cases, the perpetrators are the nursing staff whom residents rely on for care. Meanwhile, in other cases, residents have abused other residents while nursing home staff do nothing to stop it.
If you are concerned about the treatment a loved one has received in a Santa Ana nursing home, trust your gut and call our experienced Santa Ana nursing home abuse lawyers immediately at (888) 887-9777 for a free consultation. We will perform a full investigation, get answers, and help you pursue justice and compensation for abuse.
Why You Can Trust Our Santa Ana Nursing Home Neglect Lawyers with Your Loved One’s Case
We are relentlessly committed to safeguarding elderly people’s rights and dignity, with a proven track record of holding nursing homes accountable. Our California nursing home abuse attorneys have over 75 years of combined experience, and nursing home abuse is all we do. So, we handle nursing home abuse cases with extreme efficiency.
We know the Orange County lawyers, judges, and insurance companies. We often see the same culprits repeatedly, and they know we have the resources, stamina, and experience to win in court. As a result, defendants often settle for full compensation without going to trial.
When you choose Lanzone Morgan, LLP, you get more than a law firm—You get a family. You will have access to our attorneys 24/7, and everyone in our firm will have empathy and respect for your loved one and your family. Anthony Lanzone and James Morgan founded our firm in 2008 so they could give a voice to the voiceless and advocate for their right to quality care. James Morgan has dedicated his career to elder abuse because he has compassion for vulnerable adults who often depend on the people who abuse them.
Get started on your path to justice with Lanzone Morgan, LLP. With 75+ years of experience, we have a proven track record of holding nursing homes accountable.
You Are Not Responsible for What the Nursing Home Did to Your Loved One
Placing a loved one in a nursing home is always a difficult decision, but it is often the only right thing to do. You trusted the nursing home to keep your loved one safe, provide quality care, and help them thrive for as long as possible. Nursing home abuse is a violation of your trust, and it is not your fault. Nursing homes are obligated to provide the quality care you expect, and it is not unreasonable to trust them to do their job.
Many of our clients are embarrassed to come to us because they feel guilty for putting their loved one in the nursing home. They believe they put a family member in harm’s way, but this is not the case. Your family did the right thing by placing your loved one in an environment that was supposed to be safe. If you suspect they have experienced abuse or neglect in this facility, it’s important to come forward. Our California elder abuse attorneys can help you stop the abuse and get justice. Contact us today for a free consultation.
“And one of the main defenses in all of our cases is [that] whatever happened to this person wasn't because of neglect. What happened to this person was because of their underlying disease processes, their age. This was just inevitable. That's not true. People aren't supposed to get bed sores. People aren't supposed to fall down and hit their heads. Especially when the family's trying to do the right thing by entrusting the care and paying thousands of dollars so that this doesn't happen because they don't have the expertise to take care of them and keep them safe themselves.”
Our Past Clients Are Glad They Trusted Lanzone Morgan, LLP
Our past clients regularly send us positive feedback about our caring support and outstanding results, such as the following:
We Get Justice for Victims of All Forms of Abuse and Neglect in Santa Ana Nursing Homes
We have decades of experience handling cases involving common types of nursing home abuse injuries, including the following:
- Falls and fractures: Nursing home falls often cause fractured hips and wrists and usually occur due to poor supervision.
- Head injuries: Skull fractures, subdural hematomas, and brain injuries often occur from falls.
- Bedsores: Bedsores usually develop because staff fail to reposition immobile residents and keep their skin clean and dry.
- Poor hygiene: Staff in understaffed nursing homes often leave residents in their urine and feces for extended periods.
- Infections: Inadequate infection control and excessive use of indwelling catheters put residents at risk of life-threatening infections.
- Sepsis: Facility-acquired infections may cause sepsis, organ failure, and death.
- Overmedication: Chemical restraints, drug overdoses, and wrong medications can cause serious health complications.
- Sexual assault: Poor security and bad hiring practices contribute to the risk of sexual assault.
- Malnutrition and dehydration: Malnutrition and dehydration often occur because staff fail to accommodate residents’ needs and preferences or provide feeding assistance.
- Wandering and elopement: Residents with dementia may wander away if staff fail to supervise or secure the facility.
- Wrongful death: Any unexpected death in a nursing home should be investigated to rule out abuse or neglect.
Who Files the Claim When Someone Is Injured in a Santa Ana Nursing Home?
Most injury claims are filed by the person who is injured. However, many nursing home residents lack the capacity to file their own claims. In these cases, a spouse, adult child, or other trusted person may be able to file the claim if they have the legal authority.
To qualify, you must be the designated agent on a power of attorney executed by your loved one while they were mentally competent. If your loved one lacks capacity and has no power of attorney, you may be able to petition the court for a conservatorship and authorization to file suit.
If nursing home abuse has caused a resident’s death, the following people may be entitled to bring a wrongful death action:
- Surviving spouse
- Domestic partner
- Children
- Grandchildren
- Parents
- Your loved one’s personal representative
- Another next-of-kin with inheritance rights
Any concerned person has the right to speak with an attorney about suspected elder abuse or neglect. When you contact us, our team can determine who is entitled to file suit and, if necessary, help you obtain the legal authority.
You May Be Entitled to Substantial Compensation for Nursing Home Abuse Injuries
Compensation for nursing home abuse injuries may include economic, non-economic, and punitive damages.
Economic damages cover monetary losses, such as medical expenses, stolen property, and lost wages of family members. Non-economic damages compensate for the more subjective impacts, such as pain and suffering, loss of function, and emotional distress. Although rare, punitive damages are awarded to punish the defendant and deter others if a jury finds the defendant’s conduct was reckless, malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent.
If your loved one died from nursing home abuse or neglect, your family may be entitled to wrongful death damages, which may include the following:
- Your loved one’s medical expenses
- Funeral and burial costs
- Your loved one’s pain and suffering
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of guidance, comfort, love, and affection
Our Nursing Home Abuse Case Results
The unique characteristics of your case determine how much compensation you might recover. The most important factors are the nature and severity of the injuries, the nursing home’s conduct, the medical expenses, and the skill of your nursing home abuse attorney.
We have recovered over $200 million for elderly and dependent adults and grieving families impacted by abuse and neglect, including the following settlements and verdicts:
- $3 million bedsore settlement for a nursing home resident
- $2.3 million verdict for a resident who suffered permanent injuries from several falls at Country Villa Wilshire Convalescent Center in Los Angeles
- $1.2 million settlement for the family of an elderly nursing home resident who starved to death because of neglect
- $1 million settlement for a resident who suffered severe burns due to a lack of supervision while smoking
Who Is Responsible for Nursing Home Abuse and How Do You Prove It?
Nursing home owners and administrators are usually responsible for nursing home abuse. Most nursing home abuse can be traced back to systemic issues like understaffing, negligent hiring practices, and poor management.
Doctors, nurses, CNAs, therapists, pharmacists, or other staff members who commit abuse or fail to provide adequate supervision or needed care also may be responsible.
To prove nursing home abuse or neglect, you must present evidence that your loved one experienced physical, verbal, sexual, or financial abuse or received substandard care. You also must establish that your loved one suffered harm as a direct and proximate result of the abuse or neglect. Evidence may include eyewitness statements, photographs of the injuries, incident reports, state inspection records, medical records, and expert witness testimony.
We work to identify every responsible party and obtain the strongest evidence possible. We will gather all the evidence for you. We will also review the facility’s policies and procedures manual, safety incidents, inspection reports, and staffing records. Our network includes some of Orange County’s top medical experts who can help us connect the injuries to the abuse or neglect.
How California Law Protects Nursing Home Patients
State and federal laws regulate Santa Ana long-term care facilities. Such regulations include rights and protections meant to ensure every nursing home resident enjoys the highest possible quality of life and receives quality care. Nursing homes that violate these rights are liable for civil damages under California Health and Safety Code § 1430.
The Nursing Home Reform Act
The federal Nursing Home Reform Act requires skilled nursing facilities throughout the nation to do the following:
- Provide care and rehabilitation services to support residents’ mental, psychosocial, and physical well-being.
- Establish a written care plan for every resident and review it at least once a year, and when residents’ conditions change.
- Provide necessary services to fulfill residents’ care plans, including physician, nursing, pharmaceutical, dietitian, dental, and social services.
- Provide ongoing staff training and performance reviews.
- Provide physician supervision for every resident and 24-hour nursing care.
- Protect residents’ belongings.
- Maintain a registry of nurse aids who have committed abuse or neglect.
- Maintain safe, sanitary facilities.
The Nursing Home Reform Act also requires state agencies to conduct unannounced inspections of all Medicaid- and Medicare-certified nursing homes at least once every 15 months and make the results publicly available. They also must investigate complaints, which typically involve inspections. In California, the Department of Health accomplishes these responsibilities and is also responsible for imposing enforcement actions, such as fines, payment suspensions, and license revocations, when a facility is out of compliance.
Nursing Home Resident Rights
Code of Federal Regulations Section § 483.10 and California Code of Regulations Title 22 §72527 give nursing home residents the following rights:
- To live in a safe, homelike environment
- To be fully informed about their health and participate in care planning
- To give informed consent to or refuse medical treatment
- To be free of discrimination and all forms of abuse
- To be treated with dignity, consideration, and recognition of their individuality
- To receive reasonable accommodations for personal needs
- To determine their daily activities
- To participate in activities inside and outside the facility
- To have privacy during hygiene care and procedures
- To receive visitors at the time of their choosing and meet with them in private
- To move about freely without unnecessary physical or chemical restraints, including psychotropic medications given for staff convenience
- To have a representative make decisions, participate in care planning, and receive information
Title 22 requires nursing homes to hire enough staff to meet these rights and provide at least 3.5 hours of direct care per resident per day. Each facility must include these rights in its written policies and procedures and inform residents and their representatives of their rights in writing.
Reshaping California Elder Abuse Laws
Our passionate California elder abuse lawyers in Santa Ana are committed to holding nursing homes accountable for violating resident rights. We are not intimidated by large corporations and do not settle for less than our clients deserve.
We also work to change California case law to benefit nursing home residents. Our attorneys recently won a landmark California Supreme Court decision holding that nursing home arbitration agreements do not fall within the purview of health care decisions authorized by health care powers of attorney.
Such arbitration agreements rob residents of their right to present their cases to a jury when they suffer from nursing home abuse or neglect. These proceedings are rarely fair, and nursing home abuse victims seldom get justice through arbitration. The results are generally confidential and final.
Nursing homes often pressure residents to sign arbitration agreements, but they cannot make them mandatory. Taking them off the table for a power of attorney protects residents from being stuck with arbitration when they are harmed by nursing home abuse or neglect.
What Goes On Behind Closed Doors in Santa Ana Care Facilities
In 2023, Juan Sandoval, a nurse at Sunflower Gardens Senior Living Facility, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an 87-year-old woman with dementia. According to the Orange County Register, he took her down the hall into an empty bedroom to assault her. Another staff member walked by, saw the assault, and called law enforcement. While this case made headlines, most nursing home abuse and neglect in Santa Ana never receive public attention.
The nursing home abuse crisis is not unique to Santa Ana. It is a nationwide crisis that occurs throughout Orange County and California. All but one of Orange County’s 72 Medicare-certified nursing homes have received citations for infection control violations, and most have been cited for dozens of deficiencies related to substandard care and abuse.
What State Inspectors Have Found at Santa Ana Nursing Homes
Most Santa Ana nursing homes have low ratings, which indicates that vulnerable adults are not receiving the quality care and dignified treatment they deserve. Three Santa Ana nursing homes have the red hand icon next to their names on Medicare’s website, indicating they have been cited for abuse. They are the Advanced Rehab Center of Tustin, South Coast Post Acute, and Plaza Healthcare Center. Below are just a few examples of the hundreds of deficiencies found during recent inspections in Santa Ana nursing homes:
- Failure to provide proper care for bedsores and prevent new ones at French Park Care Center and South Coast Post Acute
- Failure to keep call lights within reach at French Park Care Center and St. Edna Subacute and Rehabilitation Center
- Failure to protect residents from verbal or physical abuse by other residents at French Park Care Center and South Coast Post Acute
- Mishandling of a CNA slapping a resident at Plaza Healthcare Center
- Unsanitary conditions in food preparation areas at French Park Care Center, Advanced Rehab Center of Tustin, St. Edna Subacute and Rehabilitation Center, and South Coast Post Acute
- Trash bins overflowing with soiled briefs at St. Edna Subacute and Rehabilitation Center
We Serve All of Santa Ana and the Surrounding Areas
We handle elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect cases in every California community, including all of Santa Ana and the surrounding areas below:
- Anaheim
- Orange
- Fullerton
- Garden Grove
- Buena Park
- Huntington Beach
- North Tustin
- Midway City
- Irvine
- Yorba Linda
- Long Beach
Statute of Limitations for Santa Ana Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits
The California medical malpractice statute of limitations sets deadlines for most nursing home abuse claims. The deadline is generally one year after the plaintiff discovered or reasonably should have discovered the abuse, but no later than three years after the last incident. The deadline for filing a claim against assisted living and residential care facilities most often falls under the general personal injury statute of limitations, which is generally two years after the last incident.
There are some exceptions. For example, the limitations period could change if the facility fraudulently covered up the abuse or is government-owned. Sometimes, the types of abuse or injuries could also influence the deadline. Meanwhile, if the plaintiff lacks the capacity to file a claim, this could impact the statute of limitations.
Our experienced nursing home abuse attorneys can review your case and answer your questions about the deadlines, but contact us as soon as possible to ensure the deadline doesn’t expire before your case can be filed.
Let Our Santa Ana Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Get You the Justice You Deserve
There is no excuse for elder abuse and neglect in Santa Ana nursing homes. If your loved one has suffered unexplained injuries or deteriorating health since being admitted into a Santa Ana nursing home, our caring and knowledgeable Santa Ana nursing home abuse lawyers will help you get to the bottom of it. We will provide your entire family with counseling, resources, and 24/7 emotional support while we fight for justice and compensation.
Meet Our Santa Ana Attorneys
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Written and edited by our team of expert legal content writers and reviewed and approved by attorney Anthony C. Lanzone.
- Nursing Homes
- Assisted Living Facilities
- Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly, or RCFE
- Memory Care Facilities
- Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Adult Day Care Centers
- Continuing Care Retirement Communities
- Non-Emergency Transport Providers
- Acute Care Hospitals
- Nursing Home Infections
- Falls & Fractures
- Unexplained Broken Bones
- Bedsores/Pressure Sores
- Sepsis
- Medication Errors/Overmedication
- Unauthorized Use of Restraints
- Wheelchair Transfer Injuries
- Elderly Wandering & Elopement
- Elderly Sexual Assault & Abuse
- Dehydration & Malnutrition
- Poor Hygiene
- Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
- Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
- Amputation
- Choking Deaths
- Wrongful Death
- Financial Elder Abuse