Abuse, Injury, Wrongful Death
Injury Law * Wrongful Death * Nursing Home Abuse * Insurance Bad Faith
Wrongful Death
A wrongful death claim may be pursued if the death of an individual was caused by negligent, willful, wanton, reckless or intentional conduct of another. Unlike other injury claims, a wrongful death claim is not brought by the victim or decedent; rather, it is brought by the heirs at law, or family members, of the person who died. In addition to a wrongful death claim, there may also be a survivor's claim. The wrongful death and survivor's claims are pursued in order to recover medical, funeral, and burial expenses, past and future lost wages, loss of consortium, conscious pain and suffering, and other damages suffered as a result of the death of your loved one. A wrongful death claim is intended to provide relief to family members who have been injured emotionally and financially as a result of the family member's death.
Nursing Home Abuse
Bretz Law Offices, LLC has been a leader in protecting our elders from neglect and abuse in nursing homes. We have even been published in the Journal of the Kansas Trial Lawyers' Association related to handling nursing abuse and neglect claims.
It is expected that the field of nursing home abuse and neglect claims will continue to expand given that nursing homes often put profits over patient care, and because our population of elderly people continues to grow.
Currently, in the United States, there are more than thirty-six million people over the age of 65. Statistics indicate that many will need some form of assisted living, whether it is a nursing home, assisted living facility, or other elderly facility.
Whether a caregiver fails to meet the needs of the senior (neglect) or actually physically or mentally abuses a resident, nursing home abuse is common, and it is important that we do our best to prevent it.
Common types of injuries associated with nursing home abuse:
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Falls and fractures
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Physical or chemical restraints
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Malnutrition or dehydration
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Improper, wrong or over-medication
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Bed sores
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Lack of supervision (allowing residents to wander away from the facility)
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Physical abuse or unexplained injury
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Septic shock -
Gangrene
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Theft of money and personal property
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Unexpected or wrongful death
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Unsanitary conditions
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Untrained or insufficient staff
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Over-sedation
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Abandonment
- Substandard medical care
- Poor personal hygiene
- Defective equipment
- Sexual assault
Insurance Bad Faith
When an insurance company fails to honor the obligations of your insurance contract, or fails to perform some other responsibility to you pursuant to the insurance you purchased, you may have a case against the insurance company for “bad faith.” Bad faith cases may only arise from disputes between you and your own insurance company. Another driver’s insurance company refusing to pay you money is not bad faith since there is no contract between you and another person’s insurance company.
A bad faith claim may be filed against an insurer when an insurance company intentionally and unreasonably denies, fails to process, or fails to pay a claim. Examples of bad faith may involve any kind of insurance from health and dental to automobile and homeowners. Other examples may include failure to provide for a defense as required in the event you are sued, or failure to follow contractual procedures in the event of a dispute as to the amount of compensation to be provided to you under your own coverage after an accident.
Interpreting Insurance Contracts
Insurance law routinely provides that should there be an ambiguity or uncertainty in a policy, an uncertainty in choice of wording or ambiguity would be resolved in favor of the policyholder and against the insurer. In the absence of a misrepresentation regarding coverage or exclusions, if the language of the policy is clear and explicit, the clear meaning will be enforced.
Duty to Deal Fairly
Every insurance contract contains an unwritten, invisible, or implied term referred to as the covenant of promise of good faith and fair dealing. This is a promise imposed by law upon an insurance company to always act fairly towards its insureds in handling their claims. Whether or not such a clause is included in the policy, judges will read the policy as if it were there. Carriers must meet the reasonable expectations of the policy holder and an insurer must always give as much consideration to the financial interests of its insureds as it does to its own financial interests.
Slip and Fall
“Slip and fall” is a term for personal injury cases that arise when injury is caused when a person slips and falls as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else’s property. Inside a building, dangerous conditions, such as torn carpeting, abrupt changes in flooring, poor lighting, narrow stairs, or a wet floor can cause you to slip and hurt yourself. Outside a building, you may slip and fall because of rain, ice, snow, or a hidden hazard, such as a gap or hard to see pothole in the ground. Slip and fall accidents can occur on commercial, residential, or public property. Regardless of where they happen, all property or building owners have a certain level of responsibility ("duty of care") to make sure an environment is safe.
Slip and fall accidents are the most common type of “premises liability” cases, which center on the question of a property owner’s duty to care for the property. Injury by fire or other accidents resulting from defects in the conditions of buildings also fall under this category.
Slip and fall cases are governed under negligence law. To win a premises liability claim, an injured victim has to prove either that the defendant created the hazard that led to the accident or that the defendant knew or should have known about the danger and had it removed or repaired. This can often be difficult to prove, since proving when a given hazard first appeared can be challenging.
Slip and fall accidents can also be caused by structural defects, weather-related accidents, or comparative negligence.
If you feel that you or a loved one has been a victim of wrongful death, nursing home abuse, insurance bad faith, or a slip and fall accident, please call Bretz Law Offices today.
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