World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15 focuses the country on a category of injury that runs out of view. Older adults are the most physically vulnerable group in any community. They are also the most likely to be hurt by people they trust. By the time a family member sees the pressure ulcer on a grandmother's tailbone, the harm has often been going on for months. Same with the bruise on a grandfather's forearm shaped like a hand.
The injury is rarely an accident. A skilled nursing facility that did not turn the resident in the bed. An assisted living facility that did not respond to the call light for forty minutes. A caregiver who drove an unsecured patient in the back seat of a personal vehicle without a wheelchair restraint. An adult son who took control of a parent's bank account and stopped paying for the in-home care. A facility staffer who put hands on a resident during a transfer.
What follows covers the California Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (Welfare and Institutions Code § 15600). It covers the most common fact patterns that move into the California Superior Court out of El Segundo and Los Angeles County. It covers the categories of damages the law allows a jury to consider. And it covers what families should photograph, document, and preserve in the first days after the harm comes to light.
The California Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act is codified at Welfare and Institutions Code §§ 15600 et seq. The statute applies to people 65 years of age and older. It also applies to dependent adults between 18 and 64. Those dependent adults have physical or mental limitations that restrict the ability to carry out normal activities or protect their own rights. The statute reaches physical abuse, neglect, financial abuse, abandonment, abduction, isolation, and other treatment that results in physical harm, pain, or mental suffering.
The Elder Abuse Act offers remedies that an ordinary negligence claim does not. The plaintiff has to prove the heightened standard by clear and convincing evidence. The defendant has to be liable for physical abuse, neglect, or fiduciary abuse. The defendant must be found guilty of recklessness, oppression, fraud, or malice. When the plaintiff meets that burden, the statute authorizes recovery of attorneys' fees and costs (WIC § 15657(a)). It also permits the survival of pre-death pain and suffering damages to the decedent's estate (WIC § 15657(b)).
The pre-death pain and suffering recovery is the structural change the statute makes. In an ordinary California wrongful death case, the heirs can recover for their own pecuniary loss. They cannot recover for the conscious pain and suffering the decedent experienced before death. The Elder Abuse Act removes that limitation where the heightened standard is met.
The defendant's burden is real. Recklessness under the Elder Abuse Act is more than ordinary negligence. The clear and convincing evidence standard is more demanding than the preponderance standard that governs the rest of the case. Our trial team builds the file from intake forward with the heightened standard in mind. The case the carrier writes a number on is the case that has been built to support the enhanced remedies.
Several fact patterns recur across the county.
The first is the skilled nursing facility pressure ulcer case. A resident with limited mobility develops a Stage III or Stage IV pressure ulcer. The wound forms on the sacrum, the heel, or the trochanter. It develops because the facility did not turn the resident on the documented two-hour schedule. The medical record from the hospital admission documents the wound. The facility's turning logs, the medication administration records, and the staffing records become the evidence that builds the recklessness theory.
The second is the unwitnessed fall in an assisted living facility. A resident with a documented fall risk gets out of bed. The fall happens without the call-light response the facility's plan of care required. The resident sustains a hip fracture, a subdural hematoma, or a spinal injury. The facility's fall risk assessment, the care plan, and the staffing record on the shift in question are the records that drive the case.
The third is the medication error case. A resident receives a medication that was discontinued. Or a dose that was too high. Or a medication intended for a different resident. The error produces a hospitalization, a permanent injury, or a death. The medication administration records and the facility's policies on medication reconciliation are the records the file is built around.
The fourth is the caregiver assault case. A resident is struck, restrained, or sexually assaulted by a staff member. The criminal proceeding may run in parallel with the civil case. The facility's hiring records, background check records, and disciplinary history are the documents that move the case toward the corporate defendant.
The fifth is the patient transport case. A resident is moved in a wheelchair-accessible van, in a personal vehicle by a caregiver, or in a ride-share without the appropriate restraints. A minor traffic event produces a major injury because the resident was not secured. The transport company's policies and the vehicle's restraint system become the focus.
The sixth is the financial elder abuse case. A relative, a caregiver, or a fiduciary takes control of an older adult's accounts. The wrongdoer isolates the older adult from family members and transfers assets. The Elder Abuse Act reaches financial abuse. The recovery includes the assets, attorneys' fees, and in appropriate cases pain and suffering for the emotional harm.
A wrongful death claim runs alongside a survival claim. The heirs bring the wrongful death claim. The estate brings the survival claim. The resident died as a result of facility neglect or abuse. Under the Elder Abuse Act, where the heightened standard is met, the survival claim can recover the decedent's pre-death pain and suffering. The heirs' wrongful death pecuniary loss is evaluated as a separate category.
The damages on a successful Elder Abuse Act case can include several categories. Past and future medical expenses incurred before death. That covers the hospital admission, the surgery, and the ongoing care. The pre-death pain and suffering recovery on the survival claim. The wrongful death pecuniary loss on the heirs' claim. The loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, moral support, training, and guidance on the wrongful death claim. Attorneys' fees. Costs. And in cases of malice or oppression, punitive damages.
Documentation runs in two layers. The first is the harm itself. The second is the conditions that produced it.
A preservation letter sent to the facility in the first week prevents the documents from going into routine retention cycles. The facility's records are the spine of the case.
The case begins with the family conversation. Next is the medical review by a retained nursing witness. Then comes the evaluation of whether the facts support the heightened Elder Abuse Act standard. If not, the case is built as an ordinary negligence claim against the facility.
The complaint and summons is filed in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County. The answer follows. The case management conference is the first court appearance. Written discovery is served and answered. That includes form interrogatories, special interrogatories, requests for production, and requests for admission. The depositions of the family members, the facility staff, the administrator, the director of nursing, and the medical director get scheduled. The retained witnesses are deposed.
The defense will move for summary judgment on the punitive damages claim. The defense also moves for summary adjudication on the heightened Elder Abuse Act standard. Our trial team opposes those motions. We oppose them with the record built out of the documents and the depositions. The case moves to the mandatory settlement conference and to mediation. If the case does not resolve there, the trial setting conference follows. Jury selection runs. The case is tried in front of a jury in the California Superior Court.
The general statute of limitations for an Elder Abuse Act case runs two years. The clock starts when the injury was discovered or should have been discovered. The wrongful death claim brought by the heirs has its own clock. A case against a public entity has the six-month government claim window attached. A county facility, for example.
Reporting and litigation are parallel tracks. Adult Protective Services and the Department of Public Health investigate. The civil case is filed in the California Superior Court and proceeds on its own track. The agency investigations can produce records that become evidence in the civil case.
Many California skilled nursing facilities push residents and family members to sign arbitration agreements at admission. Enforceability depends on the facts. Who signed it. The resident's capacity at the time. The scope of the agreement. The unconscionability analysis a court runs. The arbitration question is one of the first motions in the case.
A resident who is non-verbal, in advanced cognitive decline, or deceased does not stop the case. The medical record, the facility's records, the retained nursing witness's review, and the family members' observations carry the case forward.
Yes, where the facts support corporate-level decisions that produced the harm. Understaffing as a corporate cost-control decision. Falsified records as a corporate policy. Inadequate training as a corporate failure. Each can support liability at the parent level. The corporate discovery is one of the most aggressively defended portions of the case.
Bloom Injury Law represents the families of older Californians hurt in skilled nursing facilities, in assisted living facilities, in caregiver settings, and in transport. Our elder abuse lawyers build the file from intake forward as if a jury will hear every piece of evidence. Call us before the facility's risk team closes the file on you.
If you've experienced an injury due to someone else's negligence, contact Bloom Injury Law today for a free consultation. Call (310) 525-5985 or contact us online.
