Arizona Jury Awards Landmark $11 Million Verdict in Assisted Living Case

An Arizona jury recently awarded $11 million to the widow of a 36-year-old man with traumatic brain injury who died after ingesting foreign objects while in the care of Liberty Manor Residency, a Phoenix assisted living facility. The verdict included $2 million for the decedent, $5 million for the wife and $4 million in punitive damages. It was the largest verdict ever awarded against an assisted living facility in the United States.

 

Assisted living facilities are like nursing homes, but do not provide acute-level skilled nursing care.  Rather, they are supposed to help supervise elder residents and provide assistance with activities of daily living.  Assisted living facilities often contract with other service providers to provide nursing services, hospice care or other services in house.  One common problem with assisted living facilities is that they continue to house residents who really need a higher level of care and supervision than they offer, sometimes doing so because they have a financial interest in keeping the beds filled.  In Maine, some assisted living facilities accept governmental benefits, like MaineCare, but many do not.  Private pay assisted living tends to be very expensive.

 

To read the whole article, click on the link below:

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Arizona-Jury-Awards-Landmark-prnews-14697899.html/print