If your elderly loved one has been the victim of neglect due to the irresponsibility of a caregiver, it’s important to protect their rights. Elder neglect is a serious issue in our country, largely because it’s well hidden from those who can do anything about it. We cannot let negligent caregivers get away with their wrongdoings or worse, continue to neglect other elders in their care. If your loved one has suffered elder neglect in Charleston, Huntington, or anywhere in West Virginia, give us a call. Our Charleston, WV, elder neglect lawyers at Stewart Bell, PLLC may be able to help.
Has Your Loved One Been a Victim of Elder Neglect?
If your elderly loved one suffered due to a caregiver's neglect, let Stewart Bell, PLLC, help you fight for justice. Get a free case review with an elder neglect lawyer in Charleston today.
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We know your situation is tough, so we’ve made this part easy for you. Just give us a call, and we will handle everything from there.
You Deserve Justice
Your loved one has rights under the law. They deserve compensation if they’ve been neglected. Let our attorneys help you in this fight.
You Don't Pay Unless We Win
We work on a contingency-fee basis. This means we don’t collect a fee if we don’t win the case. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain.
We Understand What You’re Going Through
When a loved one is neglected by the caregiver entrusted with their well-being, it’s understandable to feel angry and betrayed. We understand your pain, and we want to help you through this difficult time. You and your family deserve justice and compensation for the crimes committed against you. Stewart Bell, PLLC is here to help you fight for everything you are owed.
When someone has neglected to provide the necessary care for your loved one, you need a trusted ally at your side. You need someone with experience and compassion who will fight to get you justice and help you to seek compensation for the harm that’s been done. We’ve helped many people in your situation, and your best chance to collect on damages comes from seeking help from a West Virginia elder neglect lawyer at our firm.
Has Your Loved One Suffered Elder Neglect?
Stewart Bell, PLLC is ready to listen to you and help you in this fight. Let’s seek justice together.
Elder Neglect vs. Elder Abuse
Understanding the difference between elder neglect and elder abuse is essential to pursuing your case. Here are a few types of neglect your loved one may have been subjected to:
Physical Neglect
When a victim has suffered physical harm, this is physical neglect. It could be due to a lack of hygiene, not being fed enough, or not being given medication when they need it. Failure to help them clean and dress, failure to change bandages, or any failure in care that leads to physical harm can be classified as physical neglect.
Emotional Neglect
When you hire a caregiver for your senior loved one, part of their duty is to provide companionship and comfort. When they fail at this responsibility, and when they belittle, dismiss, ignore, or otherwise fail to provide for their adult emotional needs, this can result in actual psychological harm such as anguish, isolation, fear, and anger.
Financial Neglect
If you have hired a caregiver to help with your senior parent or grandparent’s finances and they fail to do so, this is financial neglect. It can occur if they fail to make payments for their patient on rent, mortgage, taxes, utility bills, and even health insurance.
Abandonment
One of the most horrifying kinds of neglect is complete abandonment. This happens when a caregiver leaves their patient with no replacement caregiver. If they can’t perform their duties for any reason, they have an obligation to let you know in advance, and possibly even to help find new care.
The Reasons for Elder Neglect
There are a few different reasons your loved one may have been neglected. Knowing why it happened will help you and your elder neglect attorney in your case proceedings.
Exhaustion
Providing full-time care is a taxing profession. Sometimes, caregivers don’t take the time they should for self-care. This can lead to exhaustion and force a caregiver to neglect their patient.
Poor Training
Training is essential to providing adequate care for an elder. Unfortunately, many caregivers today market themselves with false credentials. When a caregiver doesn’t have the right training, they’re more prone to fail at their duties.
Unhappy or Underpaid Staff
If staff feel like they’re underappreciated in any way this can lead to willful neglect of duty. They may simply not want to put forth the extra step if they don’t feel like they’re getting their just due. Unfortunately, this can lead to criminal negligence.
If you’ve seen these or any other signs of neglect from your caregiver, you may have a case.
Protect Your Elderly Loved One’s Rights
Elder neglect is a constant threat but it’s also all too often an invisible issue. Not only does the neglect often pass unseen for a long time, but when it is brought into the light, agencies will go to great lengths to hide it. The state office of Adult Protective Services (APS) exists to investigate these issues, but they handle criminal charges, not compensation. You deserve compensatory damages to cover the past and ongoing harm your senior family member has suffered.
In order to collect these damages, you need help from an experienced and qualified elder neglect attorney. The West Virginia elder neglect lawyers at Stewart Bell, PLLC have helped many people in your situation. We know how to gather the necessary evidence to hold the neglectful caregiver, and any agency for whom they work, responsible.
Elder Neglect FAQs
The job of an elder neglect attorney is to protect the rights of vulnerable seniors. Care facilities and their employees have a responsibility to provide older adults with a safe environment. When they fail to do so, the consequences can be devastating. The Charleston, WV, elder neglect lawyers at Stewart Bell, PLLC help by seeking justice for elderly clients that were harmed by neglectful caregivers. This means gathering evidence and building a strong case to help families seek the justice and compensation they deserve for their suffering.
In heartbreaking situations of elder neglect, many West Virginia families struggle to know what to do next or how to navigate the legal system. If your loved one has suffered from neglect at the hands of their caregiver, you won’t have to pay any attorney fees unless we win for you. Our elder neglect attorneys work on a contingency-fee basis, which means we don’t get paid unless you do. You can call for a free case review and talk to one of our experienced elder neglect lawyers about pursuing your case today.
Neglect is when caregivers fail to meet the physical or emotional needs of an elderly person in their care. If the neglect is not intentional, this is considered passive neglect. For example, a nursing home employee may neglect your loved one because they haven’t been well-trained, which means they won’t have the knowledge or skills to provide adequate care. Passive neglect can also occur if a facility is understaffed and there aren’t enough employees to look after all patients as well as they’re supposed to. If your loved one experienced this kind of abuse, call our attorneys right away to discuss your legal options. While passive neglect is not intentional, that doesn’t change the real harm that was caused to your loved one. We can help you seek the justice and compensation your family deserves.
There are many forms of neglect that an elderly person can experience. Talking to one of our elder negligence lawyers can help you determine if your loved one’s situation qualifies for legal action. Two of the major forms of neglect are physical neglect and emotional neglect.
- Physical neglect: Any form of neglect that includes the physical wellbeing of a person, such as not looking after their medical, nutritional, or hygienic needs. This can also include not giving them their medications, not bathing them, not changing their bandages, or not providing them with nutritious food.
- Emotional neglect: Part of what caregivers provide for the elderly in their care is companionship. When they fail to fulfill this important task, the elder can experience emotional neglect. This can include ignoring the person in their care, speaking to them harshly, or leaving them alone for a long time. This form of neglect can lead elderly people to experience serious distress, anguish, and emotional pain.
Realizing that your loved one is being neglected is a devastating experience. If you suspect this is happening, the most important thing is to stop the mistreatment immediately by alerting the proper authorities. If the situation is dangerous enough to be considered an emergency, call 911 to get help.
Once your loved one is safe, take steps to report what happened to the West Virginia Adult Protective Services. This is a state agency with trained professionals that investigate claims of neglect and take them very seriously. If they find evidence of neglect, Adult Protective Services will take action against the facility. However, they do not handle justice and compensation. The team of elder neglect attorneys at Stewart Bell, PLLC, offer West Virginia clients the opportunity to hold negligent caregivers accountable for their harmful actions.