Need advice I may be wrong

[Nicholas56]

Jurisdiction

New York

In NY nursing home my mom was admitted after being discharged from 3 hospitals with ecoli in stomach they sent her home as outpatient but she never got a chance to get to dr because next week she was hospitalized again for uti and sepsis. nursing home stopped her meds against my wishes as health proxy. They bandaged her hands a few times because she ripped out the ivs that were hurting her and her hands were constantly swollen. She got edema in her legs so they swelled up both swollen legs and hands were ignored for over 8 hrs along with her diaper not being changed. Due to Covid she lost her 20 days of rehab and they stopped trying to help her walk. They weren't helping her clean her dentures so she got thrush. Which caused her to stop eating. She got weak and slept a lot. In august after telling me 3x they were going to push a heavy dose of antibiotics but never did they talked me into comfort care and were pushing morphine on me which i declined and next day mom died her room was emptied the next morning and all the nursing home does now is contact my brother saying they will sue him for money owed because we as kids are responsible to pay it even tho waiting on probate which they know about. She told me more than once they were mean to her and did something to her and asked us to save her. At times they either withheld water from her or put it across the room from her knowing she couldn't walk.
I don't know if this is a case of wrongful death or neglect or not and before I talk to an attorney here I want to know if I even should as all there is is medical paperwork they have please give some advice
Thank you

 

[justblue]

In NY nursing home my mom was admitted after being discharged from 3 hospitals with ecoli in stomach they sent her home as outpatient but she never got a chance to get to dr because next week she was hospitalized again for uti and sepsis. nursing home stopped her meds against my wishes as health proxy. They bandaged her hands a few times because she ripped out the ivs that were hurting her and her hands were constantly swollen. She got edema in her legs so they swelled up both swollen legs and hands were ignored for over 8 hrs along with her diaper not being changed. Due to Covid she lost her 20 days of rehab and they stopped trying to help her walk. They weren't helping her clean her dentures so she got thrush. Which caused her to stop eating. She got weak and slept a lot. In august after telling me 3x they were going to push a heavy dose of antibiotics but never did they talked me into comfort care and were pushing morphine on me which i declined and next day mom died her room was emptied the next morning and all the nursing home does now is contact my brother saying they will sue him for money owed because we as kids are responsible to pay it even tho waiting on probate which they know about. She told me more than once they were mean to her and did something to her and asked us to save her. At times they either withheld water from her or put it across the room from her knowing she couldn't walk.
I don't know if this is a case of wrongful death or neglect or not and before I talk to an attorney here I want to know if I even should as all there is is medical paperwork they have please give some advice
Thank you

No one here, based on what you have posted, can say if there a MED-MAL case. Take the medical records to a MED-MAL attorney and they will let you know if you have a case.


I am very sorry for your loss.

 

[Nicholas56]

No one here, based on what you have posted, can say if there a MED-MAL case. Take the medical records to a MED-MAL attorney and they will let you know if you have a case.


I am very sorry for your loss.

Thank you what if I'm told I have a case but lose can I be sued by the nursing home and hospitals? Also is it medical
Malpractice wrongful death ? Or will a med malpractice lawyer tell me?

 

[Tax Counsel]

I don't know if this is a case of wrongful death or neglect or not and before I talk to an attorney here I want to know if I even should as all there is is medical paperwork they have please give some advice
Thank you

It may be a case of medical practice, wrongful death, or both. If you seek advice from a medical malpractice attorney he or she can tell you if you may have a good case to pursue and what you might expect to get from it. Typically the lawyer's fee is taken as a percentage of any award collected (e.g. one third) and if you lose you typically owe little or nothing. So talk with a couple of malpractice attorneys and see what they have to say. If there appears to be something to go after, pick the attorney that you thought seemed the most knowledgeable and who would be responsive to your requests. You want to have trust in the attorney you hire, so if something doesn't feel right with one attorney, look for another.

 

[welkin]

Typically the lawyer's fee is taken as a percentage of any award collected (e.g. one third) and if you lose you typically owe little or nothing.

That is generally not the case. The lawyer's contingent fee is not charged but all court fees, discovery fees, and expenses are charged.

From the ABA website:

In a contingent fee arrangement, the lawyer agrees to accept a fixed percentage (often one-third to 40 percent) of the recovery, which is the amount finally paid to the client. If you win the case, the lawyer's fee comes out of the money awarded to you. If you lose, neither you nor the lawyer will get any money, but you will not be required to pay your attorney for the work done on the case.

On the other hand, win or lose, you probably will have to pay court filing fees, the costs related to gathering evidence, and similar charges.

 

[Tax Counsel]

That is generally not the case. The lawyer's contingent fee is not charged but all court fees, discovery fees, and expenses are charged.

The lawyers fee (the cost for/her time) in such cases is generally contingent. The other costs of litigation might be covered by the fee agreement, or it may be the client's responsibility. Note the ABA write up uses the same terminology: the lawyer's fee is mentioned as the lawyer's charge for the work he/she did. The second paragraph refers to costs of litigation apart from the lawyer's fee. Admittedly to the lay person that distinction is not readily apparent (which happens in a lot of professions with their own unique terms) and perhaps I should have explained that distinction in my original post. However, in well a written contract with the lawyer the client will see it spelled out exactly what he or she is responsible to pay regardless of outocome, and what work/costs are covered by the contingent fee portion of the contract. In my area both those approaches are pretty common; and there are some other more unique structures that some attorneys offer, too. Like any other contract, the client should read the proposed agreement carefully and understand it so he or she knows what to expect.

In my areas of practice it is almost all hourly billing. In particular in tax matters I don't have much choice as the applicable Treasury regulations bar most contingent fees for tax work.