California Elder Abuse Lawyer Blog

November 20, 2020

Sexual Abuse in California Nursing Homes – What You Need to Know

Skilled Nursing facilities are places for seniors and others who don’t need hospitalization, but can no longer care for themselves at home. Unfortunately, the place that is supposed to be a safe haven is just the opposite when the residents are subjected to abuse. Compared to other forms, sexual abuse in nursing homes doesn’t occur as often, but it appears to be increasing. According to the Administration for Community Living, there have been over 20,000 complaints of sexual abuse in nursing homes over the past 20 years. This equates to be about three people being sexually abused at a nursing home every day.

Because there’s no national database, it’s difficult to know how extensive this problem really is. Given the stigma associated with sexual abuse and the illnesses such as dementia that many patients suffer, many cases go unreported. The Covid-19 panic has only made things worse due to social distancing that has made it more difficult to detect signs of abuse.

Definition of Sexual Abuse

November 13, 2020

California Lactation Breaks and Remote Work

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Long before the pandemic hit, nursing mothers had to balance taking care of their child’s nutritional needs while maintaining their work schedule. The rise of remote work has helped in this goal.

Your Rights at the Workplace Apply Remotely

The recent shift to working from home has made it easier to have a place to breast feed and pump, but that doesn’t mean that anything has changed when it comes to your rights regarding lactation breaks. Whether you’re working from home or working onsite, you’re entitled to break times. Generally, all of the rights that you have as an employee in the office are retained when you’re working remotely.

November 6, 2020

How Do Insurance Policy Limits Impact Your Car Accident Value?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

You were driving down the road to pick up groceries when suddenly a car doing about 65 comes crashing into you. You decide to file a claim so that you can get compensated for your injuries, including your medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, and quality of life losses. In order to properly get reimbursement for the damages that you sustained, you will usually have to rely upon the insurance company of the other driver. The value of your claim is the total of what you can collect. It depends on many factors, including the injuries you suffered and the amount of the insurance policy the other driver has available to them to pay the claim. In most scenarios, the realistic maximum amount of money that can be collected—regardless of the injury—is the amount of insurance policy. It plays a significant part in a car accident case and policy limits determine the total amount of money that an insurance company may pay. Read on for information on how insurance policy limits impact your car accident value.

Determining Fault

California does not recognize “no-fault” laws. Therefore, a preliminary step in your car accident case, before you can recover damages, is determining that another driver is at fault. Multiple parties can be at fault and you can file against any or all of them. Even the plaintiff can be partially be at fault. California is a comparative negligence state, which means that a negligent plaintiff can still recover damages. However, the monetary amount is reduced by their degree of fault.

October 16, 2020

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:

October 16, 2020

5 Common Nursing Home Neglect Scenarios

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

One big fear many families have regarding nursing homes is the lack of appropriate and personalized care for their loved ones. Over the years, there have been countless cases of the elderly being abused and neglected in long term care facilities and nursing homes. Families need to be aware that neglect and abuse in a nursing home do not always present with obvious physical injuries, but rather as emotional abuse. In the majority of cases, elderly patient abuse in nursing homes is due to the actions or inactions of the nursing home staff.

What type of neglect can occur in nursing homes?

Medical Health Neglect: This occurs when the nursing staff fails to attend to, prevent, or treat an existing or new health problem in the senior. For example, patients with strokes who are bedridden are prone to bedsores. Universally there are established protocols to help prevent these skin problems, which are sometimes not followed. For instance, diabetic patients not only need their medications/insulin on time, the nursing staff has to simultaneously monitor the blood sugars, which if not controlled can lead to worsening of any open wound, urinary tract infection, or sepsis. Any time a senior has a change in his/her health status like the development of confusion, weakness, inability to walk or speak, this must be reported immediately to the primary care provider to determine the cause. Failure to do so can seriously compromise the health of the senior.

October 9, 2020

Are You Required to Show Your Employer Proof of Disability?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

The employment scenario: You have a disability and have requested certain accommodations at work. Your employer is now asking to see proof of your disability and/or asking for more specific details about your disability.

The question: Is an employer’s request for disability documentation legal?

The answer: Not necessarily.

October 2, 2020

Nursing Homes in a Pandemic

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

A nursing home is a private institution that provides a range of accommodations for elderly people and others in need of support. The CDC has found the risk of illness from COVID-19 increases greatly with age. Older adults with underlying health issues that contract the disease may face additional hospitalization, ventilators, intensive care, and even death. Due to the current global pandemic, it is no surprise nursing homes have been hit extremely hard by the respiratory virus.

Nursing Home Care During COVID-19

Many nursing homes have closed their doors to any visitors, so it is difficult to know what is truly going on in these facilities. Although not every coronavirus-death can be prevented, it is important nursing homes take the follow measures to protect their residents:

September 9, 2020

Does Lane-Splitting Affect Recovery for My Motorcycle Accident?

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Sitting in gridlocked or being stop-and-go on freeways for hours is never a Southern Californian’s idea of fun; people try to avoid it whenever possible. For motorcyclists, that often includes moving between vehicles and splitting lanes. However, the practice often results in accidents, leading to injuries and/or fatalities. In fact, more than 400 motorcyclists lost their lives on California streets in the span of just a year according to the Governors Highway Safety Program. Motorists who strike a lane-splitting rider often argue the motorcyclist’s behavior was negligent and they, in fact, caused the collision; however, it’s not always the motorcyclist’s fault. A skilled Southern California personal injury attorney can often make the case the rider was not the cause of the collision.

Lane-Splitting Defined

Lane-splitting involves a motorcyclist riding between vehicles in different rows of traffic using their same lane. No state besides California specifically allows it. Proponents argue lane-splitting benefits riders in many ways, such as:

September 1, 2020

How Family Can Help Ensure Quality Nursing Home Care for a Loved One

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Family members of an elderly loved one shoulder a lot of responsibilities if the need for nursing home care arises. First, they are tasked with the burden of selecting the right facility to care for a loved one. Then, because nursing homes can’t always be trusted to do the right thing, they also need to play the role of watchdog to ensure the resident gets the proper care they deserve. One of the best ways to do this is know what abuse and neglect look like, trust your instincts, and speak up immediately.

How to Monitor Nursing Homes and Care

There is no substitute for first-hand observation, but there are other ways to hold nursing homes accountable and prevent even abuse and neglect that present no visible symptoms.

August 28, 2020

Accommodating At-Risk Employees in California During COVID-19

By Walton Law, A.P.C.

Many California employees are starting to return from furloughs and remote work which was used to comply with state regulations and mitigate risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes may elderly and pregnant workers who are at higher risk for severe complications if they become infected with Coronavirus. Employers are prohibited by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from keeping these at-risk employees from working if they want to; this may lead to discrimination claims.

Discrimination claims also arise from violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities or who have elevated risk for serious cases of COVID-19. It is important for employees as well as employers to know California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) mandates that any employer with five or more workers make reasonable accommodations if appropriate; however, many employers and employees alike fail to understand what that means.

EEOC Accommodation Guidance