When we move our elderly loved ones into a nursing home, we expect them to get the level of care that they need for the duration of their stay.

We trust a nursing home’s management and staff to ensure that the daily personal care and medical assistance requirements of our parents or grandparents are met.

It also goes without saying that a nursing home is also tasked with keeping our senior loved ones safe from slip and fall accidents, which are pretty common for people their age.

Still, such mishaps happen in nursing homes. The Public Health Agency of Canada reports that each year, about a third of senior residents of nursing homes suffer at least one fall. Many families of slip and fall accident victims in nursing homes often consider the idea of getting the services of a slip and fall injury lawyer to sue the nursing home for an accident that injured their elderly loved ones. The question is, can you actually sue a nursing home for the slip and fall accident of a senior resident?

Nursing Homes Can Be Held Legally Responsible For Slips and Falls

If you have a loved one who suffered serious injuries in a slip and fall accident in a care facility, you always have the option and the right to file a personal injury suit against the nursing home.

However, you will need to prove in court that it was negligence on the part of the nursing home and its staff that led to the slip and fall accident. After all, the nursing home can always claim that they have done everything they can to prevent such an accident, and that it was simply the deteriorating mobility and sense of balance of seniors that caused it.

Signs A Nursing Home Has Been Negligent

Proving negligence may prove to be difficult, but it will help your case if you can spot signs of a nursing home’s negligence, such as:

• Absence or lack of safety fixtures such as handrails and grab bars
• Not addressing hazards like wet floors, defective flooring, and exposed electrical cords
• Absence or lack of a proper reassessment of a resident’s mobility
• Hiring unqualified employees
• Failure to adequately train staff
• Failure to hire enough people to take care of residents
• Absence or lack of proper, consistent supervision
• Not helping residents get to a chair or a bed
• Rooms and hallways that are not well-lit

What To Do When You File Suit Against A Nursing Home

If you’re convinced that it was the negligence of a nursing home that led to the injuries your senior loved one is suffering, then get an experienced slip and fall attorney to get the ball rolling on the case.

Before you file a lawsuit, it’s best to have your attorney conduct a full investigation to find out what really happened to your parent or grandparent. The results of your lawyer’s investigation will also determine if you have a strong enough negligence case against a nursing home. Once the investigation yields several instances or acts of negligence on the part of the nursing home, it’s time to file a personal injury suit in court.

Your lawyer can then subpoena documents from the nursing home in his or her capacity as an officer of the court. Some of the most important paperwork in relation to your lawsuit include the medical chart of your elderly loved one and any written record that refers to the accident that injured your parent or grandparent. 

When filing a personal injury lawsuit, you will be asking for compensation not only for the medical costs your family incurred after the slip and fall accident but also for the physical pain and mental and emotional distress your elderly loved one had to suffer because of it.

However, do keep in mind that nursing homes accused of negligence and their insurers are likely to defend against personal injury claims as aggressively as they can.

However, as long as the personal injury attorney you have on your side is a skilled and experienced one, you can rest assured that he or she will work to get your elderly loved one the best possible compensation for his or her slip and fall accident.

About the Author

Andrea Williams is the Community Manager at The Law Offices of Alcock & Associates P.C., a premier law group in Arizona that provides legal services to clients involved in Personal Injury, DUI, Immigration and Criminal cases. She enjoys cooking, reading books and playing minigolf with her friends and family in her spare time.