If I Fall at a Nursing Home, Do I Automatically Get a Settlement?

It would be nice, but no. The financial costs of fall-related injuries among people over 65 exceed $50 billion per year. Government and private health insurance companies cover most of these costs. In other words, you and I pay these costs, in the form of higher taxes and higher insurance premiums.

A Sugar Land slip and fall lawyer holds nursing home owners responsible for the injuries, including falls, that occur on their property. The law imposes a simple “you break it, you buy it” responsibility on nursing home owners and other property owners. This responsibility includes paying compensation for injuries. Families need and deserve this compensation so they can pay fall-related medical bills and move on with their lives.

In a perfect world, nursing home owners would voluntarily step forward and accept responsibility for falls and other injuries their negligence causes. But we don’t live in a perfect world. So, instead of facing the music, lawyers for nursing home owners cite obscure legal doctrines in their efforts to reduce or deny compensation to victims and their families.

Comparative Fault

This defense, which basically shifts blame for the accident from the negligent owner to the victim, is effective in many fall injury claims. But it’s usually ineffective in nursing home fall claims.

Before we tackle comparative fault, let’s back up briefly and talk about negligence, or a lack of care. Usually, nursing home owners have a duty to design and maintain safe facilities.

Many designers prefer narrow, crowded hallways, to make the facility energetic. But such hallways are dangerous for older adults and therefore off-limits in nursing home design. Safety maintenance is just as important. If an owner knows about a hazard, or should know about it, the owner must promptly remove that hazard.

In the fall injury contact, nursing home lawyers often argue that the victim didn’t watch where s/he was going. Older adults often have poor eyesight, frequently because of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This condition blurs straight-ahead vision. Quite literally, these victims cannot watch where they’re going.

Alternatively, a nursing home lawyer might argue that the victim failed to properly account for his/her own safety. The aforementioned duty of care applies to everyone, not just nursing home owners.

Once again, this often-effective defense usually doesn’t hold up in court if the victim is a nursing home resident. Many older people have mobility issues, such as gait disorders. These individuals shuffle their feet when they walk. So, when they stumble, they cannot regain their balance, and they fall.

Assumption of the Risk

In Texas, this defense is a form of contributory negligence. The assumption of the risk defense usually hinges on a “Caution Wet Floor” or other warning sign. Legally, people who fail to heed such signs are partially responsible for their own injuries.

Heeding the sign is a critical point. The nursing home owner must prove the victim saw the sign, could read the sign, and could understand what the sign meant. That first prong is almost impossible to prove in many cases, because of the aforementioned vision problems among older people.

In both comparative fault and assumption of the risk, jurors must divide responsibility 50-50, 80-20, or whatever else, based on the evidence presented.

Texas is a modified comparative fault state with a 51 percent threshold. So, if the victim was no more than 49 percent responsible for a fall or other injury, a Missouri City personal injury lawyer can obtain a proportionate share of compensation.

Work With a Thorough Fort Bend County Attorney

Injury victims are entitled to significant compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Missouri City, contact the Henrietta Ezeoke Law Firm. The sooner you contact us, the sooner we start working for you.

Source:

brooksrehab.org/news/the-cost-of-falling/