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Los Angeles Elder Abuse Lawyer
When a nursing home takes your money and breaks their promise of care for your loved one, you have the power to hold them accountable. In qualifying cases, California law provides remedies that may include attorney's fees paid by the facility, damages paid to you, and claims that can continue even after your loved one passes. Based in Woodland Hills and Irvine, the elder abuse attorneys at Berglund & Johnson have recovered compensation for injured Californians for decades. If someone hurt your loved one, call 1-800-4-IF-HURT for a free consultation.
What Qualifies as Elder Abuse in California?
Elder abuse in California includes physical abuse, neglect, abandonment, isolation, abduction, or other treatment that causes harm or suffering to an elder or dependent adult. In care-facility cases, liability often arises when a facility fails to provide the care, supervision, nutrition, hygiene, or medical attention a resident reasonably needs.
Physical Abuse and Mistreatment
Physical elder abuse includes assault, battery, sexual abuse, deprivation, harassment, intimidation, and unreasonable restraints. If a facility prevents a family from visiting or even calling their loved one, that may support a claim for abuse.
Neglect and Failure to Provide Care
Elder neglect is the failure or refusal to provide basic necessities to an older adult who cannot care for themselves. This includes food, water, clothing, shelter, hygiene, and medical care. It also includes protection from health and safety hazards and preventing malnutrition and dehydration. Neglect is the most common form of elder abuse in nursing homes. These failures may support a claim for neglect or elder abuse, even when they result from burnout or inadequate training rather than intent.
Who Is Protected Under California Elder Abuse Law?
California elder abuse law protects two groups: elders and dependent adults. Elders, or senior citizens, are anyone ages 65 or older. Dependent adults are adults ages 18 to 64 with physical or mental limitations that cause them to require assistance with normal activities and protecting their own rights.
Elders (Age 65 and Older)
According to Welfare & Institutions Code §15610.27, anyone age 65 or older is considered an elder. Age alone triggers this status, regardless of mental sharpness or physical ability.
Dependent Adults (Ages 18 to 64)
Dependent adults receive the same protections under §15610.23. This includes anyone with physical or mental limitations that prevent them from being able to conduct normal activities or protect their own rights. California law also protects certain dependent adults, including adults with physical or mental limitations that restrict normal activities or the ability to protect their rights, and in some circumstances certain inpatients admitted to 24-hour health facilities.
Why are they protected?
It has long been recognized that elders and other dependent adults are particularly vulnerable to neglect and abuse by elder care facilities. Elder care facilities promise families that they will provide the care and services their loved ones need. Unfortunately, these facilities are understaffed and fail to properly train their staff. They do this to maximize their profits.
What Are the Signs of Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect?
Common signs of nursing home neglect include bedsores, unexplained bruises or fractures, rapid weight loss, dehydration, poor hygiene, untreated infections, and sudden sedation or confusion. Families are usually the first to notice. Staff see a resident on a shift; you see the change from one visit to the next. Depending on the facts, any of these may support a claim for neglect or elder abuse.
Bedsores and Pressure Injuries
Bedsores, also called pressure ulcers or pressure injuries, develop when a resident is left in one position long enough to cut off blood flow, typically at the tailbone, hips, and heels. They are graded Stage 1 through Stage 4, and courts often treat advanced-stage sores as evidence of neglect because routine repositioning every two hours prevents most of them. A facility's failure to turn a bedbound resident is one of the clearest care-failure signals in these cases. If your loved one developed a Stage 3 or 4 pressure injury in a care facility, a bedsore lawyer can review the medical records and staffing logs to determine whether the standard was met.
Falls and Fractures
Upon admission to an elder care facility, every resident should be assessed for fall risk, and the facility must implement precautions. These include bed alarms, adequate lighting, grab bars, hand rails, and supervised transfers. Facilities know what a broken hip means for someone in their eighties. Repeated falls, or falls occurring without staff witnesses and proper explanation, can point to inadequate supervision or understaffing.
Overmedication and Improper Chemical Restraints
Using medication primarily for staff convenience rather than for an appropriate medical purpose may support a claim involving improper chemical restraint or substandard care, depending on the resident’s condition, physician orders, consent, and applicable regulations.. A sleeping resident doesn't press the call button, so understaffed facilities may sedate residents to manage their workload. Warning signs include sudden lethargy, cognitive changes, slurred speech, loss of mobility, and behavioral shifts that begin after admission or a medication change.
Malnutrition and Dehydration
Unexplained weight loss, sunken eyes, dry mouth, dark urine, confusion, and lethargy can indicate a resident isn't receiving adequate food and fluids. Staff chart intake every shift. When weight loss or dehydration develops over time, the records often raise questions about monitoring, documentation, escalation, and whether staff responded appropriately to warning signs.
Infection, Poor Hygiene, and Lack of Basic Care
Recurring urinary tract infections, untreated wounds, soiled bedding or clothing, and avoidable physical deterioration are signs a facility may be failing at basic care. One missed bath is an accident. Soiled bedding on three straight visits is a staffing problem.
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Wandering, Elopement, and Supervision Failures
Residents with dementia or cognitive decline require supervision and secured environments. When a resident wanders out of the facility, called elopement, or is injured while unsupervised, the question becomes what the facility's own care plan required and whether anyone followed it. The same applies when staff failed to answer call lights or missed clear signs of distress. Our nursing home neglect lawyers investigate what the facility knew, when they knew it, and whether staffing levels made the harm predictable.
Why Does Elder Abuse Happen in Care Facilities?
Understaffing is a common factor in elder abuse and neglect cases. In an effort to protect margins, some care facilities run thin shifts, skip training, and pack units past a safe capacity. Chronic understaffing can make it difficult for staff to keep up with repositioning, call lights, hygiene, feeding assistance, and supervision, especially for residents with high-acuity needs. California imposes heightened duties on these facilities, and a facility that fails to meet them may be liable for the harm that follows.
Who Can Be Held Liable for Elder Abuse?
Depending on the facts, liability may extend to facilities, corporate operators, staffing entities, administrators, caregivers, and other individuals or entities whose conduct or omissions contributed to the harm such as::
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Nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities
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Assisted living and residential care facilities
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Hospitals
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In-home caregivers and home health agencies
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Individual staff members, administrators, and medical directors
Corporate chains often hide parent companies behind multiple shell entities and management firms, leaving the legally liable entity with no assets. Our elder abuse attorneys trace the ownership structure and pursue every liable party.
What Damages Can You Recover in a California Elder Abuse Case?
Elder abuse victims in California can recover medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of consortium. Wrongful death damages can also be pursued if your loved one passed away as a result of abuse or neglect.
Welfare & Institutions Code §15657 elevates elder abuse claims far beyond standard negligence or malpractice. In qualifying cases, when recklessness, oppression, fraud, or malice is established by clear and convincing evidence, remedies may include attorney's fees and costs, and the elder's pain-and-suffering claim may be preserved after death.
Talk to a Los Angeles Elder Abuse Lawyer for Free
If your loved one was abused or neglected in LA County or anywhere in California, give us a call or stop by one of our offices in Woodland Hills or Irvine. We investigate quickly and negotiate from trial readiness, because insurers pay more when they know a firm will try the case. We offer free consultations, confidentiality, and you pay nothing unless we win. Call 1-800-4-IF-HURT or use the form below.
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Frequently asked questions
Elder Abuse FAQ's
Common signs of nursing home neglect include bedsores, unexplained weight loss, dehydration, repeated falls, poor hygiene, untreated infections, sudden sedation or confusion, and injuries staff can't explain. These patterns develop over time, and depending on the facts, they may support a claim for neglect or elder abuse. Documenting what you see, with dates and photographs where possible, helps preserve the record.
Yes. Bedsores are among the strongest indicators of neglect because most are preventable with routine repositioning and skin checks. Courts often treat Stage 3 and Stage 4 pressure injuries as evidence that a facility failed to follow basic care standards. If your loved one developed advanced bedsores in a facility, it's worth having an attorney review how it happened.
Unexplained weight loss, lack of fluids, and nutritional decline are common warning signs of serious care failures. Facilities are responsible for monitoring residents' food and fluid intake, so these conditions rarely develop without repeated missed opportunities to intervene. Depending on the facts, dehydration or malnutrition may support a claim, and medical records from the facility often show what staff knew and when.
The elder can sue directly. If the elder lacks capacity, a conservator, guardian, or agent under a power of attorney can bring the claim on their behalf. If the elder has died, the personal representative of the estate, or in some circumstances the heirs, can pursue the claim.
Elder abuse cases are proven with medical records, facility staffing logs, state inspection reports, photographs of injuries, and witness accounts from staff and other families. Basic claims require a preponderance of the evidence. Enhanced remedies under EADACPA require clear and convincing evidence of recklessness, oppression, fraud, or malice. The sooner an attorney starts preserving evidence, the more of it survives.
An elder abuse attorney costs nothing upfront in most cases because these claims are handled on contingency, meaning the fee comes out of the recovery. If we don't win, you owe us nothing. California's elder abuse statute also lets courts order the defendant to pay your attorney's fees in qualifying cases, on top of your damages.
The statute of limitations is generally two years from the injury for elder abuse and neglect claims. Claims against government-run facilities carry notice deadlines as short as six months. Waiting costs evidence. Records get purged and witnesses scatter.
The remedies. Medical malpractice claims in California are capped by MICRA on non-economic damages. Elder abuse and medical negligence are different claims, and the distinction can significantly affect available remedies. In appropriate elder abuse cases, plaintiffs may seek statutory remedies beyond those available in ordinary negligence actions, which is why how the claim is investigated and pled matters.Facilities push hard to reclassify neglect as "mere malpractice" for exactly this reason. How your claim is pled directly changes what it's worth.
Call 911 for emergencies. Otherwise, report abuse in homes and the community to Los Angeles County Adult Protective Services, and abuse in nursing homes or care facilities to the California Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Reporting protects your loved one. Talking to an elder abuse lawyer protects their legal claim. Do both, in that order if the danger is immediate.
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