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Eugene Nursing Home Abuse / Elder Abuse Attorneys

At Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Schaller, P.C., we help elderly persons, residents of assisted living centers or group homes, and other vulnerable adults who have suffered from negligent or abusive treatment while dependent on the care of others. If you or someone in your family has experienced mistreatment or elder abuse of any kind, contact one of our Oregon nursing home abuse and elder abuse lawyers for a free initial consultation about your situation.

Examples of elder abuse and negligence in care faced by elderly or vulnerable persons with care-givers include:

• Physical assault by nursing home employees or fellow residents.
• Negligent medical care, including mistakes with prescription drugs or failure to diagnose and treat illnesses or conditions.
• Inadequate supervision leading to falls and fractures.
• Sexual assault
• Insufficient attention to nutrition, hydration, or basic comfort essential to health.
• Unsanitary conditions leading to infections or vermin.

Oregon was one of the first states in the nation to enact comprehensive elder abuse prevention legislation. Our elder abuse and negligence statute requires certain administrators and nursing home or health-care professionals to report incidents of elder abuse when reasonably believed to have occurred. The statute creates a right of civil action for violations of the law, and provides for certain prescribed rights for restraining orders and injunctions. The statute also protects elders from financial or sexual exploitation as well as physical mistreatment. In cases of nursing home abuse and elder abuse, our attorneys can explain to you how this statute might protect you or an elderly parent. The statute requires the court to award treble damages for both economic and non-economic losses caused by the abuse, together with the plaintiff's attorney's fees.

One weakness of the Oregon elder abuse statute is the provision that a lawsuit for damages cannot be brought under its terms against a nursing home, home care agency, or assisted living center unless the facility or its employee is convicted of a crime involving financial exploitation, sexual misconduct, assault, or similar offenses. Thus, it sometimes makes better sense to pursue litigation against a nursing home, residential facility or care-giver under common law theories of negligence, personal injury, medical malpractice, or assault, depending upon the facts of a particular case. That way, the success of the case does not depend upon the criminal conviction of any given institution or employee of a criminal offense, but can proceed under standard proof of the elements of a particular personal injury or tort.

In cases of nursing home abuse and elder abuse, our attorneys have considerable experience and skill in developing the facts of negligence, exploitation, and assault cases against defendant nursing homes and care-givers. We know how to examine evidence relating to the particular injury, exploring all options, including investigation of the defendant facility's actions through compliance records filed with state and federal agencies.

Sometimes former employees or care-giving personnel can be found to testify to a pattern of abuse or indifference as to the welfare of elder patients and residents. In other cases, inadequacies in criminal-history background checks of nursing home employees will support a negligence claim, particularly where a similar injury-causing behavior or situation has occurred before at the same facility or by the same care-givers.

At Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Schaller, P.C., our in-depth understanding of the rights of elders and nursing home residents to proper treatment, care, and protection, together with our intensive approach to the investigation and proof of claims, combine to give our elder clients a decided advantage in the litigation of these cases. For additional information about our ability to represent you, your loved one or a client in an elder abuse or negligence case, contact an Oregon nursing home and elder abuse attorney at Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Schaller, P.C.

The product defect attorneys at Johnson, Clifton, Larson, & Schaller, P.C. represent plaintiffs in personal injury and wrongful death cases involving medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, truck accidents, disabled persons' tort claims, nursing home negligence or elder abuse, industrial and construction accidents, birth injury cases, and product liability or defective medical device cases. Our auto accident lawyers serve clients throughout Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon and the Willamette Valley, including Corvallis, Salem, Medford, Roseburg, Klamath Falls, Bend, Redmond, Ashland, Creswell, Central Point, Grants Pass, Brownsville, Myrtle Creek, Springfield, and Albany, OR.

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