DFW Nusring Home Attorney | Battles Still Rage over Nursing Home Abuse

Battles Still Rage over Nursing Home Abuse

In West Virginia, a battle over a nursing home abuse award is still raging. The award was granted to the plaintiffs after they established that their loved one had died as a result of abuse at the nursing home. The award was astounding: $11.5 million in compensation and $80 million in punitive damages. These figures are certainly way above the norm for these types of cases, but some are trying to paint this as something that shows why damages need to be capped.

To Cap or Not?

Capping the maximum award in a civil lawsuit is something some politicians argue for very passionately. Their arguments usually hinge on the idea that companies having to buy insurance to protect against such large lawsuits is why the costs of services such as healthcare are so high. There are some holes in this argument:

1. The average settlements and awards are not nearly as much as the figures usually quoted
2. The victims of this abuse sometimes have no other recourse
3. The settlements and awards usually help the families move on and rebuild
4. States with damage caps have not seen decreases in healthcare or insurance costs. Texas for example, has seen an increase not a decrease in healthcare costs after politicians passed strict caps.

Capping damages is very popular in the political arena today, but huge awards such as the one in West Virginia should not be what you expect to receive if you sue.

Understanding Compensation

The reason that people are awarded compensation after filing a lawsuit is because something was done to them that caused them a great deal of hardship. Suing is oftentimes the only way that families can recover from these hardships. The criminal charges that may be involved do nothing for the family of the victim or the victim. The money they receive, however, can help them to start the healing process. It oftentimes covers the costs of medical expenses, counseling, moving to another facility and so forth.

Remember that some of the lawsuits filed over nursing home abuse are filed over wrongful deaths. When someone says that damages need to be capped, they're essentially saying that the life of someone who was lost due to abuse or neglect is only worth so much, no matter how egregious the situation was.

Neglect in nursing homes and nursing home mistreatment can both be deadly. When the most vulnerable populations are exploited and abused, it is the strongest corporations that often benefit. When the abusers only have to pay awards that are, for huge corporations, essentially petty cash, it's the families that end up footing the rest of the bill, even though they did nothing to deserve it.