Spartanburg Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer

Neglect in nursing homes can be detrimental to residents’ health and even life-threatening if caregivers in the institution don’t meet their medical needs. Victims of nursing home neglect may appear:

• Dirty due to lack of proper hygiene, such as regular sponge baths
• Hungry or malnourished due to skipped meals or imbalanced menu diets
• Sickly if they do not receive daily medication, water, or necessary treatment
• Depressed due to long periods of isolation and even abandonment

If your loved one is a victim of nursing home neglect or abuse and resides in Spartanburg, South Carolina, our legal team at Hammack Law Firm wants to advocate for the injuries and damages they experienced. One of our Spartanburg nursing home neglect lawyers can work on your case and guide you through the claims and litigation process in South Carolina.

Our Team May Ask Key Questions to Gauge How Serious the Neglect is in Your Case

Understanding the full scope of the neglect your loved one experienced will be crucial in building your case argument. After all, neglect can be a sign of a larger abuse case for the victim. However, in some cases, elder residents may not have the cognitive ability to detail their perspectives, such as those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Depending on what you already know about the situation, we may ask these key questions to start building a foundation for your case:

• Did your loved one start showing abnormal symptoms or had a severe decline in their health? Caregivers in nursing homes are responsible for administering daily medications to residents and ensuring residents take proper dosages. If your loved one started showing symptoms that indicate they were not taking their medicine or might have received low or high dosages of their medication, your loved one’s caregiver(s) may be held liable for negligence.
• How often was your loved one left alone in their room without any assistance? If there is video footage that shows few or no staff members entered your loved one’s room to provide care services, we may document these hours to show how often your loved one was left unsupervised. Additionally, if your loved one fell and called for help, we may also view records to see how long the response time was to assist the victim with their injuries.
• Were there specific staff members assigned to your loved one’s care? If specific nurses, tech assistants, or caregivers were assigned to monitor your loved one’s health, they may be named as a liable party if they failed to fulfill their medical duties.
• Did your loved one receive food and was it to standard health code? Poor nutrition is another sign of neglect. We may look into how often the institution provided cooked meals for your loved one and whether the institution’s kitchen meets state health code mandates.
• Did your loved one show other signs of abuse that were ignored by staff? If your loved one showed signs of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, we may look into whether complaints were filed or recorded. Additionally, we may interview other residents or guests to see if they noticed abnormal behavior by staff, such as workers who purposefully ignored your loved one.

Our legal team will investigate your case thoroughly to establish the extent of neglect that occurred. As we discover more information, we may ask additional questions, ranging from when you suspect the neglect started to whether you were able to get in contact with the nursing home to receive regular updates on your loved one.

We Can Help You Calculate How Much Compensation to Pursue in Your Case

Once we establish the key elements of your case argument, another facet of your case will involve listing your damages so that we may estimate how much compensation to negotiate or pursue in court. In many nursing home neglect cases, plaintiffs can demand compensation for:

• Medical treatment expenses you had to cover to treat injuries that could have been prevented had staff members supervised your loved one
• Property damage or theft costs if your loved one was being financially taken advantage of while being neglected
• Pain and suffering, which includes physical and emotional pain
• Permanent disability or disfigurement that resulted after your loved one’s injuries were ignored or dismissed
• Loss of enjoyment in hobbies and activities, especially if your loved one was forced into isolation from other residents in the nursing home

You may qualify to pursue other damages, depending on what your case involves. Our legal team at Hammack Law Firm works hard to be as accurate as possible when estimating the value of your case.

You Have Limited Time to Submit Your Nursing Home Neglect Case

In South Carolina, S.C. Ann. § 15-3-530 dictates that you must submit your nursing home neglect lawsuit within a three-year filing window, which begins on the date when the neglect started or when you discovered your loved one may have been victim to neglect.

There Is No Time to Waste When Building Your Case

Three years may seem like ample time to build a case, but several factors can prolong the case development process and have you risk filing late. For example, be aware that:

• Internal investigations into nursing homes can be lengthy, even if there have been prior complaints.
• Retrieving evidence, such as surveillance footage or medical records, may require special permissions. Additionally, surveillance footage and testimony from other residents are time-sensitive, in that footage may set to erase itself after a certain timeframe, and residents’ memories may fade quickly.
• If you file a claim through the defendant’s insurance provider, the adjusters may stall negotiations as an attempt to have you miss filing a lawsuit within the statute of limitations.
• Confirming facts about your case can take longer if the victim does not have the mental capabilities to do so.

Our legal team will manage your case for you and lead the investigation. We can identify which party or parties may be listed a liable party, then take steps to serve them a notice about your intention to sue so that your case gets filed on time.

Call Hammack Law Firm Today to Have Our Attorneys Start Preparing Your Case

A Spartanburg nursing home neglect lawyer at Hammack Law Firm can begin working on your case as soon as you decide to work with our legal team. Simply call (864) 326-3333(864) 326-3333 to receive a free case review, and one of our team members will discuss:

• What options you have to file for compensation from the appropriate parties
• What services our legal team can provide to start building your case
• Our contingency fee agreement system, which in short terms, is our agreement to only charge attorney’s fees if we win you compensation

Do not hesitate to start building your case. Call our law firm today.