West Coast Consumer Attorney Blog

June 21, 2022

How to Deal with Workplace Retaliation

Although it may be difficult to do, employees have the right to say something when they believe that their employer has violated the law. If the employee has been harassed or mistreated, they should be able to voice their concerns about the employer’s wrongdoing without it impacting them negatively, such as a reduction in hours or outright firing. Fortunately, there are federal and state laws in place to protect workers from retaliation.

Definition of Workplace Retaliation

Employment retaliation occurs after an employee files a formal complaint about the workplace involving discrimination and/or harassment. The employer or company leader then takes negative action against the employee.

June 15, 2022

6 Red Flags to Watch Out For in California Nursing Homes

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

It can be difficult choosing the right nursing home for your loved ones. You should seek information about previous safety violations and nursing home ratings and reputation before making a decision. With that said, recent reports suggest that the information you find online may sometimes be misleading, incorrect, or incomplete. Moreover, it is not possible to identify whether a certain facility will pose any risks to the residents in the future – simply by looking at its history.

Reputable nursing homes with excellent past records have been known to place elderly residents at the risk of life-threatening injuries. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore their safety track record. Instead, on top of regular checks, you should look out for the following red flags when it comes to nursing homes. This should help you find a safe and dependable nursing facility for your elderly loved ones in California.

Red Flag 1: High rate of Covid-19 deaths and infections

June 8, 2022

Is It Better to Settle or go to Trial for Your Personal Injury Case?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Law is hard to navigate when you need the Legal System to help right the wrongs against you. The goal of any personal injury and wrongful death case is to get fairly compensated following your accident. As one of the top San Diego and Riverside County personal injury law firms, we are dedicated to getting results for our clients. Whether it is through a settlement or taking your case to trial, both have advantages and disadvantages.

Pros and Cons of a Personal Injury Settlement

Roughly 95% of all Personal Injury cases settle prior to trial. Some of the benefits of settling your case include:

June 1, 2022

Dementia and Wandering in Elders

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

According to the World Health Organization, dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people. Dementia, which is a syndrome in which there is a deterioration in memory, behavior, and thinking, causes many who suffer from it to lose the ability to perform their regular activities.

Elders are stricken with dementia far more than any other age group. In many cases, dementia is the reason an elder moves into a nursing home. Dementia is also often to blame for what is known as “elopement” or in layman’s terms, wandering. Elders with dementia may develop wandering tendencies, wherein due to cognitive impairment, they begin to wander around their nursing home unsupervised and without an escort.

Wandering may lead to serious injury as the result of falling. In some cases, wandering has even led to death, in cases where residents have wandered outside of their residential facility. Though rare, wandering is dangerous enough that lawmakers included provisions to protect against it in the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Act. The law required that nursing homes must provide residents with adequate supervision to prevent elderly patients from wandering. That means, of course, that nursing homes must be properly staffed.

May 25, 2022

Loved One with Dementia: Does their Facility Offer the Correct Services they need?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

In a previous post, we suggested tips for confirming that a potential skilled nursing facility or residential nursing home has the appropriate staff to address the needs of elders with dementia. To recap, dementia is a syndrome with deterioration in memory, behavior, and thinking. This causes many who suffer from dementia to lose the ability to perform their regular activities. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, though there are multiple types of dementia.

Elders suffering from dementia need special care when they move into a long-term care facility such as a California nursing home. If you are considering helping to move a loved one with dementia into a nursing home, there are specific questions you will want to ask about the services provided for your loved one.

Questions should include:

May 18, 2022

What Is Elder Abuse?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Elder abuse typically refers to the knowing, intentional, or negligent act by a custodial care provider, caregiver, or any other person that causes harm to a vulnerable adult. In California, anyone aged 65 and older is protected by the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act. The laws are designed to help prevent neglect and abuse to California seniors. Neglect falls within the definition of elder abuse, and unfortunately may have dire consequences to the victim.

In broadest terms, neglect is a type of elder abuse wherein a caregiver fails to provide the elder with basic needs including water, food, shelter, heat/air-conditioning, personal hygiene products and medical assistance. Failure to adequately move or reposition a bedridden elder, for example constitutes neglect, just as failing to keep elders properly nourished and hydrated constitutes neglect.

Neglect is particularly dangerous for elders, as it can lead to life-threatening consequences. Such consequences of neglect include:

May 11, 2022

How Medication Errors Turn into Nursing Home Abuse

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse occurs more often than you might think. While many forms of abuse leave physical marks (like a scratch or bruise), some forms of abuse leave invisible scars, which are no less harmful than physical abuse. Besides financial and emotional abuse, this is also the case of medication errors, which occur when someone makes a mistake in prescribing, dispensing, and giving medications.

Examples of Medication Errors in Nursing Homes

While medication errors exist in many settings, our concern here is for the instances in nursing homes. Here are just a few specific ways that medication errors occur in these facilities:

May 4, 2022

What Are the Financial Options of Passengers in Car Accidents?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

There’s so much discussion around the dangers of driving, but the dangers are equally real for passengers. Whether in the front or the back, you have legal options for recovering financially when you are a passenger in a car accident. Fortunately, in most cases, you would likely be able to recover damages for your injuries as a passenger. However, passenger injury claims stemming from car accidents can get more complicated. Whether a driver or a passenger, insurance companies will always try to avoid paying at all and then seek to pay as little as possible which is one of the many reasons why working with an experienced car accident lawyer is essential no matter what seat in the car you were riding in!

What Do You Need to Prove the Cause of the Accident?

To start, who caused the accident? The answer to this question is not always just one person but can be many, which can be helpful because it means there are potentially more available insurance funds. Ultimately the how and why of the accident needs to be proved to establish the negligence of various parties. California is a comparative negligence state which means that while you can still file a winning lawsuit if you played a role in your accident, your compensation will be reduced accordingly. For instance, if you weren’t wearing your seatbelt at the time of the crash, the other party will argue that you contributed to making your injuries worse and seek to reduce your payout accordingly.

April 27, 2022

Were You Wrongfully Terminated or Fired? 4 Questions to Ask:

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Losing your job never feels good. When you do leave your post, you want to leave on your turns, but that’s not always possible. Whether it’s personality clashes or miscommunications about performance expectations, there are numerous reasons for your boss to let you go. However, because California is an at-will employment state, you don’t have much recourse unless your termination was based on an illegal reason. Then you may be able to sue your employer for damages; this is the difference between a regular firing and a wrongful termination.

Here are 4 questions to ask that can help determine whether you might be a victim of wrongful termination.

Did your employer breach a contract?

April 20, 2022

Making the Transition from Home to Nursing Home

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Deciding to place your parent or loved one into a nursing home requires a lot of thought and preparation. After that decision, one major area of concern is adjusting from living at home to living in a nursing home. Make sure that the nursing home staff is not only aware of these transitions but that they are well-equipped to help residents manage these changes.

Higher than Expected Expenses

In preparing to make a transition to nursing home life, you have to anticipate the difference in the cost of living. Generally, it’s less expensive to live at home than at the facility. This is something that must be taken into consideration. Although some expenses are covered by private insurance providers, such as Medicare, the monthly charges can add up quickly.