Georgia Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers

Do I Have a Nursing Home Abuse Case?

There are two requirements for bringing a nursing home abuse case in Georgia:

(1) Did the nursing home do something they weren't supposed to?

This is called "negligence."

(2) Did that action (or inaction) cause serious injury or death?

This is called "causation."

Why isn’t negligence enough?

Often, proving negligence is not the hard part. An employee dropping a resident or a resident found wandering alone outside a facility are basically negligence on its face. But establishing that the nursing home was negligent is not enough to file a lawsuit.

The nursing home’s bad act must have actually caused an injury.

For example, a resident’s call light is broken and no one responds for over an hour. If the resident is physically fine after that hour, then there is likely no case because the bad act (not responding to the call light) did not cause a severe injury. We call instances in which the nursing home did something wrong, but results in no harm, a “close call.”

So, just because a nursing home did something wrong, doesn’t mean you will be successful in a lawsuit. You still need to prove “causation.”

How is causation proved in a nursing home abuse case?

Just because “X” came before “Y,” no matter how soon, does not mean that “X” caused "Y."

Proving that a nursing home’s negligence is the actual cause of a severe injury or death is often the most difficult, time consuming, and expensive part of a case. Nursing homes often defend themselves by saying the resident’s age or health are the true cause of any injury.

For example, in order to link a resident’s death to a particular infection, and that infection to a particular pressure ulcer, often requires expert medical testimony.

Linking the negligence to injury or death requires lots of legwork. We review medical records, track down ex-employees, depose nursing home administrators, subpoena documents from state agencies, and consult with medical professionals in order to prove causation.

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