Your mother went into that nursing home to be cared for. Now she is gone, and part of you already believes the facility played a role in it. You are afraid the death certificate will simply say natural causes, while the facility’s insurance company already has a lawyer working the file.
Those fears are why families call an experienced Fullerton nursing home abuse lawyer. Stephen Hunter, a Fullerton nursing home wrongful death attorney, has spent 18 years building elder abuse and neglect claims against Orange County nursing homes.

Contact Hunter Law, PC. Tell us what happened to your mother or father, and we will tell you plainly whether this looks like neglect.
| 18 Years Licensed in California | Avvo Rating: 8.9 Excellent | Zero Disciplinary Findings | Pro Bono Award, State Bar of CA |
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When a resident dies in a nursing home, the facility’s first instinct is to call it a natural decline. We look at whether it was preventable.
Our nursing home wrongful death attorney can help with deaths connected to:
If any of this sounds close to what happened to your parent, that is worth a real conversation, not a guess.
According to Avvo endorsements, opposing counsel who have faced Stephen Hunter in nursing home litigation call him one of the most knowledgeable attorneys they have encountered in this area of law. Understanding why experience matters when fighting elder abuse can help families evaluate the legal support they may need. Recent case types resolved by Hunter Law, PC include:
| Outcome | Case Type |
|---|---|
| Settled | Failure to timely transfer a nursing home resident to the hospital |
| Settled | Stage IV pressure ulcer in a skilled nursing facility |
| Settled | Fall in a skilled nursing facility |
Settlement terms are confidential, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome in your family’s case.
California’s wrongful death law, Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60, lets your family recover the financial support, care, and companionship your parent’s death took from you. What most families do not know is that a second rule matters just as much.
As of January 2026, ordinary survival claims no longer include a parent’s own pain and suffering before death, but the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, Welfare and Institutions Code § 15657, still allows it. But you must show the neglect was reckless, not just careless. And you have to prove that with clear and convincing evidence. Ordinary negligence alone does not qualify.
Recognizing this distinction is vital, as overlooking it could cost your family damages you’re entitled to. It’s exactly the kind of gap nursing homes and their insurance adjusters are ready to use against you.
This reflects California elder abuse and wrongful death law as of July 2026.
A nursing home wrongful death case rises or falls on records the facility controls, not records your family already has. Within days of being retained, we request:
Our trusted nursing home wrongful death lawyer in Fullerton can also send the facility formal notice. That notice (called a spoliation letter) puts the facility on record. If they destroy or alter files after that, they can face real legal consequences.
Every week your family waits is a week the facility has to finish writing its own version of events first. Contact us today. We are prepared to hold the nursing home accountable for the pain they have caused your family.

Compensation depends on the facts, but California law allows recovery for lost financial support, funeral and burial costs, and the loss of your parent’s care and companionship. If neglect caused the death, your family may also recover damages your parent could have claimed had they lived.
Hunter Law, PC represents nursing home wrongful death families on contingency. You pay nothing upfront, and there is no fee unless we recover compensation for your family.
Yes. In most cases, California gives your family two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death claim. But that deadline can be much shorter if the nursing home is run by a public entity, like a county or city. Facility records also get harder to obtain the longer you wait. Contact us as soon as you can so we can pin down your exact deadline and start preserving evidence.
Not necessarily. Many nursing home arbitration agreements are unenforceable if they were signed under pressure, by someone without authority to sign for the resident, or without proper disclosure. Stephen Hunter has spent years litigating exactly these agreements and can tell you whether yours holds up.
More than 12% of Orange County adults 65 and older have a dementia diagnosis, well above the state and national average, and residents with dementia are often unable to report abuse themselves. Family members are frequently the only ones positioned to catch it.
Stephen Hunter personally reviews what happened, requests the facility’s records, and gives you a direct answer about whether your parent’s death looks like neglect and what your options are.
You do not have to sit with this alone, wondering what happened behind closed doors. Contact Hunter Law, PC today for a free, confidential case review. We work on contingency, so there is no cost to find out whether your family has a claim.
Contact Us for a Free Consultation Today.