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Elderly adults living in nursing homes are some of Ohio’s most vulnerable residents. Unfortunately, understaffing is common, and nursing home neglect happens all the time, even in seemingly well-respected facilities. If your loved one is suffering abuse and neglect or, even worse, has died as a result of their mistreatment in an elderly living facility, you can work with a Toledo nursing home abuse lawyer to hold those responsible accountable.
We care about the state’s most vulnerable populations, including the elderly inhabitants of Ohio’s many skilled nursing facilities. Spangenberg Shibley & Liber got its start in 1946, and we’ve handled countless nursing home abuse claims in the decades since then. You deserve to work with a legal team that has the knowledge and experience required to take on corporate senior living facilities and hold them accountable for injuries caused by their subpar care.
It’s estimated that one in 10 Ohioans ages 60 and up will experience some type of elder abuse within their lives, much of which takes place at nursing homes. Only one out of every five of the crimes committed against elder Americans gets reported, which means many abusers are getting away with inflicting harm on the state’s most vulnerable residents. When you hire a nursing home abuse lawyer to take on your loved one’s case, you do your part to stop that trend.
A Toledo nursing home abuse attorney can help you do more than hold the facility accountable. We can help you seek compensation for your loved one’s injuries or wrongful death. Your lawyer can assist you with simple matters like filing paperwork and gathering medical records, as well as complicated ones like negotiating with insurance companies.
Our team has extensive experience litigating nursing home abuse cases in civil court, so we’re not afraid to go to trial, if necessary, to support you or your loved one’s rights.
Nursing home abuse can take on many forms. Sometimes, it involves a single incident. More frequently, it involves patterns of behavior. It can involve individual caregivers or other residents, or it can be caused by neglect and negligence at an institutional level. Some of the most common types of nursing home abuse claims include those filed for:
There are several factors that can contribute to nursing home abuse or neglect. Some of them are:
Residents are often hesitant to report any forms of abuse out of embarrassment or fear, so don’t assume that just because your loved one isn’t complaining about their living situation, there’s nothing wrong. The National Institute on Aging cites several red flags of elder abuse:
If you see any of these issues occurring at your loved one’s nursing home, it’s time to take action. Even if a formal complaint has already been filed, you should still speak with a lawyer about filing a civil claim. Your loved one could be compensated for the harm they have suffered at the hands of the people who were supposed to be caring for them in their twilight years.
Nursing homes can often be held responsible for injuries to residents. Their liability extends to negligence, abuse, false imprisonment, and violations of elder abuse laws. They may also be liable for any regulatory violations, which can include issues pertaining to licensing, maintenance, and general operations.
In addition to civil cases, those responsible for perpetrating elder abuse can also face investigations by adult protective services agencies and potential criminal prosecution.
Many nursing home abuse claims are based on negligence. To pursue a personal injury claim on this basis, you must show:
To take a look at one example, a nursing home has the duty to make sure its residents are safe. If a caregiver fails to shut the front door at night and an unauthorized person gains access, they could harm the residents by either hurting them physically or stealing from them. The damages suffered in the form of personal injuries or lost belongings are directly caused by the breach of the caregiver’s duty in leaving the door open.
Medical malpractice cases can also occur in nursing homes. Unlike negligence claims, which can be filed against any person who failed to uphold their duty of care, medical malpractice claims can only be filed against healthcare providers.
Some nursing home medical malpractice claims are relatively obvious, as with a facility’s doctor who fails to diagnose a patient’s condition, leading to a worse personal health outcome. Others are more nuanced.
The distinction between negligence and malpractice can be challenging to make, but it’s important. The two types of claims are different. A medical malpractice claim will require the same basic proofs of negligence, but your lawyer may also need to hire an expert witness to testify as to the accepted standard of care within the industry.
Expert witnesses often play a key role in nursing home medical malpractice cases. They review medical records and bills related to patients’ injuries and offer an opinion on proper treatment and procedures, given the situation. It may not always be obvious to the average person that a failure to uphold the standard of care has occurred.
You’ll need to prove that the victim’s injury was directly related to the doctor’s or other healthcare provider’s negligence, which can be challenging in nursing home cases where patients often struggle with other underlying physical and/or mental health conditions. Nursing homes often argue that preexisting health conditions were the true cause of injuries, but don’t be deterred by this. A nursing home abuse lawyer can help you establish what really happened.
One well-established rule that pertains to proving causation is known as the eggshell rule. It supports plaintiffs suffering from preexisting conditions and states that defendants, including nursing homes, take patients as they find them, including their preexisting conditions. In other words, the eggshell rule indicates that defendants are not relieved of liability just because victims had preexisting health conditions.
Medical malpractice and negligence are two of the most common sources of nursing home abuse claims. However, there are other ways that nursing home residents can face abuse at the hands of those tasked with caring for them. Financial abuse in nursing homes is relatively common, for example, as caregivers often have access to residents’ financial information. This can lead to identity theft, diversion of benefits, and other serious crimes.
Common signs of financial abuse include:
You should seek criminal charges if you believe that a nursing home’s staff has been financially exploiting your loved one, though a nursing home abuse lawyer may also be able to help you hold the responsible party civilly liable.
Sexual abuse is a crime and should be reported to the authorities. You may also be able to file a civil claim with the help of a nursing home abuse attorney.
Liable parties in such a claim can include not just the staff member who was assaulting your loved one, but also the facility itself, thanks to the theory of vicarious liability. Nursing homes are responsible for properly vetting their staff members to prevent problems of this sort. If they don’t, they can be held legally liable for attacks that occur as a result.
Because nursing home residents tend to be in poor health, they may be more likely to experience extreme adverse health outcomes due to medical malpractice or nursing home neglect. If a bad health outcome leads to a fatality, the nursing home resident’s surviving family members can bring a wrongful death suit against the party found to be legally liable. This is often the nursing home, but other parties may also hold a certain amount of liability.
Damages recoverable through wrongful death claims include:
If you need to file a nursing home abuse wrongful death claim, it’s important to work with a law firm that routinely handles these kinds of serious cases. Our team has handled countless wrongful death claims during our decades in practice.
Nursing home abuse cases can get complicated quickly because they often involve multiple liable parties. The most obvious ones are the nursing home staff and owners, but others may be responsible for creating an environment in which the injury was likely to occur. They can include:
If an unsupervised resident attacks another, both the attacker and the nursing home that failed to provide adequate supervision can be held liable for any injuries that occurred. If a medication has unexpected side effects that harm a nursing home resident, you may be able to file a claim against the drug maker or the prescribing doctor.
Damages are compensable harms suffered as a result of another person’s negligence or active malfeasance. In nursing home cases, they can include:
It’s rarely the case that nursing home residents have reason to file a claim for damages such as lost wages or future earning potential. There are, however, cases in which punitive damages may be available. Punitive damages are awarded in cases where the care provider engaged in either malicious or exceptionally reckless conduct, leading to harm to a resident. They’re intended to deter bad behavior rather than to compensate its victims.
It is difficult to overstate the problem our society has with nursing home abuse. Around one in six elderly adults reported abuse in 2023, and two out of three staff members indicated that they had committed some form of abuse within the past year. However, many cases of nursing home neglect and abuse go unreported due to fear of retaliation. As of 2025, an astonishing 96% of Ohio nursing homes had reported deficiencies according to one study.
There are several ways you can take action to help resolve the epidemic of nursing home abuse and neglect occurring in the Buckeye State. Whether your loved one is staying at Majestic Care of Toledo, Franciscan Care Center, or another institution, you can keep an eye out for the warning signs of abuse and neglect introduced above. If you see them, you can both file an official complaint and file a civil claim against the facility to hold them responsible.
If you believe your loved one may be suffering in an elderly living facility, you should contact a Toledo nursing home abuse lawyer right away.
A: Acts that are considered malpractice in a nursing home include any actions that result in a failure to provide an acceptable standard of care and result in harm to the affected resident. Key examples include untreated bedsores, malnutrition, dehydration, and medication errors. Other forms of malpractice in nursing homes include inadequate fall prevention and failure to follow a doctor’s orders.
A: It can be hard to file a claim against a nursing home for neglect. Doing so requires showing that the facility failed to uphold its duty of care, which can be challenging due to many victims’ inabilities to testify and missing documentation. However, a Toledo nursing home abuse attorney can help you build your case using the victim’s medical records, photos, and staffing logs to prove negligence.
A: The four proofs of negligence are duty of care, which in this case refers to the duty of the nursing home to provide for the health and safety of residents; breach of duty, which occurs when one or more staff members are negligent in the provision of care; causation, which shows that the responsible party’s negligence caused the victim’s injuries; and damages, which can be either economic or non-economic.
A: The odds of filing a successful claim for nursing home abuse vary depending on the particulars of the case. In some cases, it’s relatively easy to show that abuse occurred. In others, your lawyer may need to provide not just evidence and witness statements but also expert witness testimony. Your case may become even more complicated if it needs to go to trial instead of being settled outside of court.
Proving that abuse or neglect occurred in an elder living facility can be tough, which is why it’s essential that you have a skilled Toledo nursing home abuse lawyer on your side.
The team here at Spangenberg Shibley & Liber recently obtained a $4.4 million settlement on behalf of the family of a woman who died following a fall in a nursing home, and that’s just one of the many cases we’ve handled. * However, past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own merits. Let us assist you with your nursing home abuse case. Contact us to schedule an initial consultation today.
*Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own merits.
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