Are you looking for a nursing home abuse lawyer in Hempstead, NY?
At Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP, we provide nursing home abuse representation from a firm with 48 years of practice and recognition from the National Association of Distinguished Counsel.
If your mother, father, or spouse has come home from a Hempstead nursing home with bruises no one can explain, a pressure sore that was never mentioned, or a sudden decline that the staff calls “just age,” you may be seeing the signs of nursing home abuse. The facility will have an explanation ready. Its records may tell a different story.
Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP has represented injured people and their families across Long Island since 1978, and our attorneys have tried medical negligence, premises, and wrongful death cases against institutional defendants for decades. A Hempstead, NY nursing home abuse lawyer families rely on when a facility fails a parent will review the records at no cost. Contact us before the facility’s version of events becomes the only one on paper.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Hempstead, NY
A nursing home abuse lawyer represents residents and their families in claims against the facility, its operators, and the staffing and medical contractors who failed to provide the care the resident was entitled to receive. Abuse and neglect are not the same thing. Abuse is an act, such as hitting, restraining, or sexually assaulting a resident. Neglect is a failure, such as leaving a resident unturned until a bedsore reaches the bone. Both are compensable, and both require the same thing to prove: the facility’s own charts, staffing logs, and incident reports.
New York licenses 598 nursing homes, and the state health department surveys the care of more than 100,000 residents living in them. Nassau County facilities, including the county-operated A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale, serve a large share of Hempstead’s elderly residents. A nursing home abuse attorney in Hempstead, NY reads the inspection history of those facilities before the first meeting, because a pattern of citations for the same failure is often the strongest evidence in the case.
Types of Nursing Home Abuse Cases We Handle in Hempstead
Injuries in long-term care facilities fall into recognizable patterns, and each one leaves a documentary trail the facility is required to keep. Our Hempstead nursing home abuse lawyers represent residents and families in every category below, and we obtain the records before they are revised.
- Bedsores. A Stage 3 or Stage 4 pressure sore develops only when a resident is not repositioned, kept clean, and fed properly. Wound care notes, turning schedules, and nutrition records show how long the facility ignored the problem.
- Slip and falls. Hip fractures and head injuries from unattended transfers, missing bed alarms, and ignored fall-risk assessments are the most common claims we file. The care plan tells us what the facility knew about the risk.
- Physical abuse. Bruising in patterns, restraint marks, and injuries with shifting explanations point to staff conduct. We obtain personnel files and prior complaints against the aides involved.
- Malnutrition and dehydration. Weight loss, dry skin, and confusion often trace to understaffing at mealtimes. Dietary records and weight logs establish the timeline.
- Medication errors. Missed doses, wrong drugs, and chemical restraint with sedatives cause falls, strokes, and cognitive decline. Medication administration records document each error.
- Wandering and elopement. A resident with dementia who leaves the building or wanders into danger inside it was failed by supervision and door security that the facility was obligated to provide.
- Sexual abuse. Assault by staff or other residents is reported far less often than it occurs. We handle these claims with discretion and pursue both the facility and the individual.
- Infections and sepsis. Untreated urinary tract infections, infected wounds, and unmanaged catheters progress to sepsis when nursing staff miss the signs.
- Wrongful death. When neglect ends a resident’s life, the family’s claim covers the suffering the resident endured and the loss the family sustained.
Why Choose Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP as my Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer in Hempstead, NY?
Trial Lawyers Who Have Faced Nursing Home Operators Since 1978
Martin Schiowitz co-founded our firm in 1978 and has spent more than 50 years trying medical malpractice, wrongful death, premises liability, and municipal liability cases, the categories that nursing home claims draw on. He is consulted by other lawyers on tort law and trial strategy, has mentored a generation of younger attorneys, and has been recognized for community service through his work with youth and education organizations. That breadth is what you want from a personal injury lawyer in Hempstead, NY when the defendant is a facility operator with its own litigation department.
Jeremy Schiowitz has represented injury victims across Long Island and New York City for more than 16 years and directs the firm’s litigation strategy, motion practice, and appeals. The National Association of Distinguished Counsel placed him in the nation’s top one percent in 2014 and 2015, the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys named him among the 10 Best in New York in 2015, and his cases have drawn coverage from NBC New York, CBS News, ABC, the New York Post, and PEOPLE. He earned his undergraduate degree from Yeshiva University in 2000.
Results and Fees That Protect the Family
Our firm has recovered more than $200 million for clients. Fall and premises recoveries, the category most nursing home neglect claims belong to, include:
- $700,000 in a premises liability case
- $700,000 in a second premises liability case
- $570,000 in a premises liability case
- $500,000 in a premises liability case
Consultations are free. Nursing home cases are handled on a contingency basis, so the family pays no attorney fee unless we recover.
Understanding Nursing Home Abuse Cases
What Is the Nursing Home Abuse Case Timeline?
Most negligence claims in New York must be filed within three years, claims that rest on medical treatment decisions carry a shorter period of two and a half years, and a wrongful death claim must be brought within two years of the death. The shortest deadline that fits the facts controls, and a claim against a county-operated facility adds a notice of claim requirement measured in months rather than years.
The case itself begins with a records demand. New York law gives the resident and the family the right to the complete chart, and the facility’s response to that demand is usually our first look at whether the records were kept accurately. A records review by a nurse consultant follows, then a formal claim, then a lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court if the facility’s insurer does not resolve it. Depositions of aides, nurses, and administrators take most of the following year. Facilities settle when their own records show the failure.
What Are Important Aspects of a Nursing Home Abuse Case?
Four issues shape nearly every claim against a Hempstead facility.
- Staffing levels. Understaffing is the root cause of most neglect, and payroll-based staffing reports filed with the federal government show whether the facility met its own care plan.
- The care plan and the chart. Every resident has a written plan. Gaps between what the plan required and what the chart shows was done are the case. Our overview of the forms neglect takes covers the patterns we look for.
- The resident’s own testimony. Many residents cannot testify. Family observations, photographs, and the warning signs recorded in a family member’s notes fill that gap.
- Cause of decline. The facility will argue that the resident’s condition, not its care, caused the injury. A death attributed to dementia may in fact point to neglect, and independent physicians separate the two.
Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Nursing Home Abuse Cases
Liability rests on negligence, and in New York on a residents’ rights statute as well. A facility owes each resident the care a reasonable nursing home would provide, and it is responsible for the acts and omissions of its employees. New York’s residents’ rights law adds a separate claim when a facility deprives a resident of a right or benefit the law guarantees, and that claim carries its own damages provisions.
- Medical expenses for treating the injury, including hospitalization, wound care, and transfer to a higher level of care.
- Pain and suffering endured by the resident, which is recoverable even when the resident has since died.
- Punitive damages in cases of willful or reckless disregard for the resident, a remedy the residents’ rights law specifically allows and our explanation of punitive damages covers in detail.
- Wrongful death damages for the family’s financial losses and funeral expenses, with the resident’s own suffering recovered through the estate.
- Attorney fees in some residents’ rights claims, shifting part of the cost of the case to the facility.
What Should You Bring to Your Nursing Home Abuse Consultation?
Families rarely have the facility’s records at the first meeting. Bring what you have, and we will demand the rest.
- The admission agreement and any arbitration language it contains
- Photographs of injuries, the room, or the resident’s condition, with dates
- A written timeline of what you observed and whom you spoke with at the facility
- Hospital records from any transfer out of the facility
- The names of the aides, nurses, and administrators involved
We review the timeline, explain the deadlines that apply, and tell you whether the injury looks like a claim we can prove. The consultation is free.
Hempstead Nursing Homes and Local Resources for Residents’ Families
Hempstead residents are served by facilities across the Town of Hempstead and central Nassau County, including the county-run A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale, and the inspection results and complaint history for each one are public. Lawsuits against Hempstead-area facilities are filed in Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola.
- The New York State Department of Health accepts nursing home complaints through its Centralized Complaint Intake Unit and investigates abuse, neglect, and mistreatment allegations.
- The state’s Long Term Care Ombudsman program assigns advocates who visit facilities and resolve resident complaints at no charge.
- The New York State Office for the Aging explains the complaint process for families and residents.
- Facility inspection results, citations, and enforcement actions appear in the nursing home reports the Department of Health publishes for every licensed facility.
Reach Out to Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP to Schedule a Consultation
If someone you love was hurt or neglected in a Hempstead, NY nursing home, we will obtain the records, identify who is responsible, and explain what the claim is worth. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we recover for the family. We respond to new inquiries promptly. Contact us to schedule a meeting with a Hempstead nursing home abuse attorney.
