You made the difficult decision to place your parent, spouse, or loved one in a nursing home, trusting that they will receive the professional, compassionate care they deserve. Discovering that someone shattered this trust through abuse or neglect delivers a devastating and infuriating betrayal. Your loved one was supposed to be safe. Instead, they have suffered harm, pain, and indignity at the hands of the very people paid to protect them. This is not just unacceptable; it is illegal, and you have the right to demand justice.
We are fierce advocates for the vulnerable at Leonard Hill – Personal Injury Lawyers and Car Accident Lawyers. We fight for the dignity and safety of your loved ones. When a nursing home breaks your trust, we hold them accountable. Our mission is to give a voice to the voiceless and use the full force of Pennsylvania law to secure the compensation and justice your family deserves. You are not alone in this fight.
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Why Choose Leonard Hill to Fight for Your Family?
When a loved one suffers and emotions run high, you need a legal team with the strength, resources, and dedication to pursue justice. At Leonard Hill – Personal Injury Lawyers and Car Accident Lawyers—we focus solely on fighting for the injured, never for the corporations or insurance companies that shield negligent facilities. Our record of success, including recovering over $500 million for our clients, speaks to our dedication and ability to win.
Our team of trial attorneys, led by firm founder Leonard Hill and supported by experienced lawyers like David Maselli and Susan B. Ayres, has decades of combined experience. We understand the profound betrayal your family feels, and we are committed to telling your loved one’s story with the compassion and aggression it deserves. We promise to be strong advocates, taking the time to listen to your goals, understand your needs, and keep you informed at every step. We put our knowledge, resources, and capabilities to work every day to recover as much as possible for the harm your family has endured.
While our principal office is in Philadelphia, we proudly represent families throughout the Lehigh Valley. We are ready to meet you wherever it is most convenient to discuss your case and advocate for your loved one in Allentown.
We handle all nursing home abuse cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you don’t pay any legal fees unless we recover compensation for you. Your fight is our fight.
Holding a Nursing Home Accountable: Compensation for Abuse and Neglect
Filing a lawsuit against a negligent nursing home is about more than just money; it is about accountability. It delivers a clear message that the community will not tolerate abuse and neglect.. However, securing financial compensation is a critical part of making things right. A successful claim can provide the resources your family needs to deal with the consequences of the facility’s failures.
Our Allentown nursing home abuse attorneys can help your family pursue compensation for:
All Medical Bills
When abuse or neglect leads to injury, the medical costs can be overwhelming. These expenses never should have occurred, and your family should not bear the financial burden.
We fight to recover full compensation for every dollar related to the harm caused, including costs for emergency room visits, hospital admissions, surgeries to repair broken bones, and wound care for severe bedsores. This also includes the cost of future medical needs, such as ongoing physical therapy, rehabilitation, prescription medications, and any specialized medical equipment required for your loved one’s recovery. The negligent facility is responsible for these bills, not you.
Physical Pain and Emotional Suffering
The harm from nursing home abuse goes far beyond physical injuries. The law recognizes that victims deserve compensation for their immense pain and suffering. This includes the physical agony from injuries like fractures, infections, or deep pressure ulcers. It also accounts for the significant emotional trauma—the daily fear, anxiety, humiliation, and loss of dignity that comes from being mistreated by a caregiver. While no dollar amount can erase these scars, a claim for pain and suffering is a powerful legal tool to hold the facility accountable for the human cost of its negligence.
Permanent Disability and Disfigurement
A severe injury in a nursing home can permanently change a resident’s life. If a fall results in a hip fracture, your loved one may lose their ability to walk independently. Severe bedsores can leave behind permanent scars and disfigurement.
When negligence leads to a permanent disability, we demand compensation for this profound loss of quality of life. This includes damages for the loss of mobility, independence, and the inability to enjoy daily activities. We fight to ensure the settlement or verdict reflects the lifelong impact of the injury.
Securing Justice Through a Wrongful Death Claim
Losing a family member is the most devastating outcome of nursing home neglect. When a facility’s failure to provide proper care leads to a resident’s death, your family has the right to file a wrongful death claim to seek justice. This legal action holds the facility accountable for the ultimate loss.
In Pennsylvania, a wrongful death claim can allow the family to recover damages for funeral and burial expenses, medical bills incurred before your loved one passed away, and the value of lost companionship, guidance, and support. It is the final, most serious way to hold a negligent facility responsible for its fatal errors.
Demanding compensation does more than help your family heal. It forces the nursing home to answer for its actions and can spur changes in policies and staffing that protect other residents from suffering the same fate.
Where Does Nursing Home Abuse Occur in the Lehigh Valley?
The heartbreaking reality is that nursing home abuse and neglect can happen in any long-term care facility, regardless of its location or reputation. No community is immune to skilled nursing facilities in Allentown’s west end or assisted living centers in Bethlehem and Easton. Many of these incidents occur behind closed doors, hidden from family members who believe their loved ones are safe.
Understaffing is a frequent cause of neglect and injury in care facilities. According to analysis from Spotlight PA, hundreds of nursing homes in the state fail to meet the expert-recommended staffing level of 4.1 hours of direct care per resident per day. When facilities prioritize profits over people, they often cut staffing to dangerous levels, leaving too few caregivers to attend to residents’ needs properly. This can lead directly to falls, medication errors, and other preventable harm.
Whether your loved one was in a large, corporate-owned facility or a smaller, local home, the legal duty to provide a safe environment remains the same. We’re ready to investigate and hold the facility accountable for any breach of duty.
Understanding Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania law provides a strong framework for protecting care-dependent individuals. However, abuse and neglect are not always obvious. They can take many forms, and family members are often the first to notice the subtle signs of something wrong. Understanding what constitutes abuse is the first step toward taking action.
The Older Adults Protective Services Act defines abuse as the infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment resulting in physical harm or mental anguish.
You can categorize it in several ways:
- Physical Abuse & Neglect: This is the most visible form of harm and includes hitting, pushing, or the improper use of restraints. Neglect is failing to provide essential care, which can be just as deadly. This includes failing to prevent bedsores, not assisting with hygiene, or leaving residents in unsafe conditions that lead to falls and fractures.
- Emotional or Psychological Abuse: This involves verbal and non-verbal acts that cause mental pain and emotional distress. Examples include yelling, insulting, threatening, intimidating, humiliating, or isolating a resident from others.
- Financial Exploitation: This abuse involves the illegal or improper use of a resident’s funds, property, or assets. This can range from stealing cash from a wallet to coercing a resident into changing their will or adding a caregiver to their bank accounts.
- Medication Errors: This serious neglect happens when staff give a resident the wrong medication or dose or fail to provide prescribed medication altogether. This can have life-threatening consequences.
Common Signs of Abuse and Neglect
You know your loved one best. If you notice any of the following signs, trust your instincts and investigate further.
- Unexplained injuries include bruises, welts, cuts, or broken bones.
- The development of bedsores (pressure ulcers) is almost always a sign of neglect.
- Sudden and significant weight loss or signs of dehydration.
- Poor hygiene, including soiled bedding, dirty clothes, or an unkempt appearance.
- Withdrawal from normal activities, depression, or unusual fear or anxiety.
- Fearful or tense interactions with a specific caregiver.
- Changes in banking or spending patterns, or missing personal property.
- Staff are refusing to let you see your loved one alone.
According to the National Institute on Aging, recognizing these warning signs is key to stopping the harm.
Proving the Nursing Home Was Negligent
Nursing homes and their powerful insurance carriers have a team of lawyers dedicated to denying claims and minimizing payouts. They may try to blame your loved one’s injuries on their age or pre-existing health conditions. They may claim an injury was from an unavoidable accident. Our job is to cut through these excuses and expose the truth.
At Leonard Hill, our trial attorneys meticulously investigate every case. We know a facility’s negligence is often rooted in its policies and procedures.
To prove your case, we:
- Scrutinize Staffing Records: We analyze staffing levels and turnover rates to show that the facility was understaffed and cannot provide adequate care.
- Review Training Logs: Pennsylvania law requires specific training on abuse prevention for nurse aides. We examine whether the staff responsible for your loved one’s care received proper training.
- Examine Medical Charts: We comb through medical records to find evidence of neglect, medication errors, or a failure to respond to a resident’s declining health.
- Hire Medical Professionals: We work with highly qualified medical professionals who can explain how the facility’s actions or inactions led directly to your loved one’s injuries.
- Investigate Past Violations: We check the facility’s history for prior citations and complaints, which can establish a pattern of negligence. Administrators must uphold professional standards, and we expose them when they fail.
We built a powerful, evidence-based case to force the nursing home and insurer to provide fair compensation. We stand ready to take the fight to a jury if they refuse to do what’s right.
Take Action if you Suspect Someone is Harming your Loved One
If your gut tells you something is wrong, do not wait. Your decisive action can protect your loved one from further harm and preserve your family’s legal rights. Here are the steps you should take immediately:
- Document Everything: Keep a detailed journal of what you observe. Note the dates and times of your visits, the specific signs of neglect or abuse you see, and the names of the staff members on duty. Take pictures of any visible injuries or unsanitary conditions.
- Report Your Concerns: First, write your concerns to the nursing home administrator. Then, regardless of their response, file a formal complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Reporting the incident creates an official record and may trigger a state investigation. Under Pennsylvania’s Abuse of a Care-Dependent Person statute, facilities and their employees must report suspected abuse.
- Speak with Others: Talk to other residents and their families if appropriate. They may have noticed similar issues and can provide additional witness accounts.
- Preserve All Records: Keep copies of everything related to your loved one’s care, including the admission agreement, all medical bills, and any letters or emails from the facility.
- Call an Experienced Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer: Do not delay seeking legal advice. Pennsylvania has a strict two-year time limit for filing personal injury claims, and building a strong case takes time. An attorney can protect you from the insurance company and immediately begin an investigation to secure critical evidence.
Contact Our Allentown Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Today
You placed your trust in a nursing home, and they failed your family. Now, take the next step to hold them accountable. Do not let the facility and its insurance company intimidate you or convince you that your loved one’s injuries were unavoidable. Your family has rights, and your loved one deserves justice. The time to act is now.
The legal team at Leonard Hillis ready to stand with you. We chose to be injury lawyers because we believe every person is entitled to fair and reasonable compensation for their injuries. Let us tell your story and fight for the outcome you deserve.
Call us now at (215) 567-7600 for a free, confidential consultation. We are ready to listen, and we are ready to fight for you.