A nursing home lawyer can provide crucial assistance if you or a loved one has experienced—or is experiencing—neglect or abuse in a nursing home. Hiring an attorney promptly is key for preventing further harm and protecting your family’s legal rights.
Not all lawyers are equally capable of handling cases involving nursing home abuse or neglect. It is important to know what to look for in an attorney so you can find an advocate who will represent you with compassion while pursuing the maximum compensation you deserve.
So how can you find the right nursing home lawyer? Keep reading for more information, or call Colombo Law at 304-599-4229 today for a FREE case review.
Search in Your Local Area
The first thing to consider when beginning your search is that you should only look to hire an attorney in your local area. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Local Laws
Most importantly, you will want an attorney who understands the nuances of local laws. Hiring an attorney from out of state—and sometimes even from a different city—can make a difference in how a case should be handled.
If your attorney makes an error because of what they do not know about your local laws, it could slow down the process or make it more difficult to recover compensation.
2. The Local Court System
Similarly, hiring a local attorney will ensure they understand how to navigate the local judicial system. They may have relationships—or at least familiarity—with judges and other officials, allowing them to make smarter, more calculated decisions when managing your claim.
3. Practical Considerations
Finally, working with a local nursing home lawyer will make it easier to meet with them in person. This makes it easier to discuss the case with your attorney, provide them with any paperwork or evidence you have collected, etc.
Assess Their Experience
To many people, if someone is a lawyer, then they are well-suited to handle many or most legal situations. However, there are huge differences in how different cases should be managed. Even within personal injury claims, how a nursing home abuse case is handled will differ greatly from how an attorney would handle a car accident case.
As such, you should only seek out attorneys who have specific experience handling nursing home abuse and neglect cases. Real-world experience is a must for the successful resolution of your claim.
Review Their Results
While experience is important, even more important are the results they have been able to achieve. If someone has handled 100 nursing home abuse cases but they have only won half of them, that is not a very encouraging win rate. (For reference, at Colombo Law we have a 99% win rate.)
So make sure any nursing home lawyer you are considering has experience winning compensation for clients—not just fighting for it. Sometimes you can find these results on lawyers’ websites, although it is also something you can request by contacting the attorney and asking them directly.
Trial Awards vs. Settlements
Another thing to consider when reviewing their results is whether all of the results came via settlement or via trial award. If an attorney or law firm only ever settles out of court, it could be a sign that they hesitate to take cases to trial.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a settlement. In fact, reaching a settlement is sometimes advantageous for the client. However, you need to make sure your attorney is willing to take your case to trial if that is the best way to recover the compensation you need and deserve for your damages.
Read More: Why a Settlement Offer May Not Be in Your Best Interests
Meet with the Lawyer
At the end of the day, you need to trust your nursing home lawyer. While trust is built in part from knowing your attorney has the experience and results needed to win compensation for you, it is also about the interpersonal connection you have with your attorney. Call it your gut instinct.
So, after you narrow down your list of qualified attorneys, reach out and meet with a few of them—all of them should offer free consultations—to discuss your case and learn about the firm. For example, make sure you understand how and when they bill.
If the attorney is patient and takes time answering your questions—while asking good questions themselves—it is generally a good sign they will have your best interests in mind. On the other hand, if they seem impatient and dismissive of your concerns, it may be hard to trust them as much as you should to handle your nursing home abuse case.
Contact a Nursing Home Lawyer Today
Hiring the right nursing home abuse attorney can be a difficult choice. You need someone who will fight for your rights as if they were their own while providing the real-world experience, proven results, and local knowledge to win.
At Colombo Law, we are here to be that kind of law firm for our clients. We take the time to listen and explain while providing the guidance, experience, and know-how you need to win maximum compensation.
We are firm believers that anyone who abuses or neglects an elder should not only face the maximum criminal charges but should also be responsible for the maximum damages their actions have caused. If you or a loved one suffered nursing home neglect or abuse in Morgantown or elsewhere in West Virginia, contact Colombo Law for FREE.
