Orange County Hospice Care Abuse Lawyer

Hospice care is a critical service providing comfort, dignity, and compassionate support as a person enters the final days of their life. Abuse and neglect in hospice settings can leave patients and their families feeling betrayed. Allegations of abuse can also be devastating to a caregiver. At Hunter Law, our Orange County hospice care abuse lawyer is dedicated to helping families and individuals who find themselves embroiled in this type of situation.

Let our deep knowledge of California law and unshakeable commitment to justice go to work for you. Whether you have experienced elder abuse in a hospice care facility, are pursuing a wrongful death medical malpractice claim, or are a hospice worker who has been implicated in a neglect case, we can offer swift and cost-effective legal help. From our main offices in Irvine, Hunter Law is proud to serve all of Orange County and the surrounding area.

Hospice Abuse and Neglect: A Challenging Legal Landscape

Hospice abuse cases are challenging, not just legally but also emotionally. Consider the following elements and how they might shape a legal proceeding:

• Patients checked into hospice care are, by definition, expected to pass away in the near future, making it extremely difficult to disentangle the natural course of things from the results of abuse or neglect.
• Family members are going through an extremely difficult time, making it difficult for them to focus constructively on the legal process.
• There is often very little hard evidence available in hospice abuse and neglect cases.
• It can be challenging to differentiate between bad behavior by a single hospice employee and the institutional failures of the hospice facility itself (making it difficult to decide who to bring litigation against).
• Hospice care facilities are largely applauded and thought of as a public good. This means legal actions taken against them may be unpopular, and in the worst-case scenario could be impacted by the bias of court officials and witnesses.

Hospice care is intended to offer a final worldly home, a place of peace, support, and comfort for those living through the final stages of terminal conditions. Instances of in-hospice abuse, as well as false allegations, may seem unfathomable to many. Unfortunately, reporting and previous court cases show that both of these circumstances do indeed occur.

Hospice abuse can be difficult to identify. Like other types of abuse, hospice abuse (and elder abuse in general) exists on many different levels and manifests in many different ways. Some potential types of hospice abuse include:

• Physical Abuse – Outright physical assaults are an obvious form of abuse, but rough handling, unnecessary restraints, and failure to provide certain types of care can also qualify as physical abuse in some situations.
• Neglect – Failing to provide a hospice patient with food, medicine, hygiene assistance, or other needs is a form of abuse.
• Emotional and Psychological Abuse – If staff intimidates, harasses, scares, or embarrasses a vulnerable patient, this may constitute a severe (and legally actionable) form of emotional abuse.
• Financial Exploitation – This can include the theft of a patient’s cash upon their passing, coercing an incapacitated patient into signing over assets, overcharging a patient by confusing them with bogus fees, or financial violations targeting hospice patients and elderly nursing home residents.
• Medical Malpractice – Because a hospice facility is not just a short-term residence but also a type of healthcare facility, it may also be subject to certain medical malpractice laws, particularly when abuse or neglect occurs at the hands of a doctor or other healthcare provider.

With such sensitive and complicated legal matters, it is important to enlist the services of a reputable and experienced Orange County hospice abuse attorney to ensure all parties are protected and justice can be sought.

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Hunter Law – Powerful Advocacy for Hospice Abuse Cases in Orange County, CA

If you or a loved one is experiencing abuse in a hospice setting, or if you have been somehow implicated in a hospice abuse case, don’t wait to take action. We can help you use the law to ensure justice is upheld. Contact our Irvine, CA offices today to set up a confidential consultation.