Personal Injury Law

Nursing Home Lawsuit Caps Fail TN House of Reps

Following up to earlier Tennessee Law Blogs' call to arms: Victory!

Despite the best efforts (and money) of nursing home industry lobbyists, the measure to place limits on nursing home abuse/neglect cases died in the Tennessee House of Representatives today in subcommittee thanks to elected officials like Rep. Henry Fincher of Cookeville who voted against what he?s called the "Kill Old People Cheap Act."

A companion bill, the lovechild of Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville, TN, still awaits vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Tennessee State bill, if passed, would dictate the amount a jury can compensate victims of TN nursing home abuse and neglect. The nursing home industry mobilized its Tennessee nurses and other employees by suggesting that nursing home attorneys? sole purpose is to slander their profession. Instead, what the bill would allow, if passed, is Tennessee nursing homes to continue understaffing their long-term care facilities, which studies have found time and again is the number one cause of neglect and preventable injury in nursing home care.

Sufficient nursing home care should never take second seat to nursing home profits as Tennessee Law Blog has warned of in its article, Nursing Home Ownership May Determine Abuse. Understaffing is one suggested reason for TN nursing homes statewide poor conditions. Before proposing this bill again, our state representatives who voted yeah should look the children of Linda Darlene Carter in the eyes and say what dollar value their mother?s death in a TN nursing home by negligent dehydration is worth x amount of dollars, and not a penny more.

If your loved in a Tennessee nursing home has suffered abuse or injury from neglect, call (615) 353-0930 or fill out our nursing home attorney form for a free initial consultation with myself or another Higgins Law Firm Nashville, TN lawyer.

Full post as published by Tennessee Law Blog on April 23, 2009 (boomark / email).