Can You Sue for Nursing Home Neglect in California?

Yes. California law provides nursing home residents and their families with robust legal tools to hold facilities accountable when neglect causes injury or death. A nursing home neglect lawsuit can result in compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and in cases of reckless conduct, enhanced damages that go beyond what standard negligence law provides. At The Elder Justice Firm, we handle nursing home neglect cases throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County, and the surrounding region. This page explains what qualifies as actionable neglect under California law, who can file a claim, and what the legal process involves.

What Is Nursing Home Neglect Under California Law?

California defines neglect in the elder care context under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15610.57 as the failure of a custodial caregiver to provide goods or services necessary to avoid physical harm, mental suffering, or mental illness. In the nursing home context, this means facilities have a legal duty to provide adequate food, water, shelter, hygiene, protection from health and safety hazards, medical care, and medication management. When a facility fails in any of these areas and a resident suffers harm as a result, the family may have a viable legal claim.

Neglect is distinct from abuse, though the two can overlap. Abuse involves intentional harmful conduct, while neglect is typically a failure to act. Both are actionable under California law, and both can support claims for significant damages. Neglect is actually the more common form of nursing home harm, often arising not from malice but from systemic understaffing, inadequate training, and corporate policies that prioritize cost reduction over resident safety.

What Does Actionable Nursing Home Neglect Look Like?

Families often ask what level of inadequate care constitutes a legal claim. The answer depends on whether the facility's failures caused real harm to the resident. Common examples of actionable neglect include:

• Pressure ulcers that develop and worsen because staff failed to reposition the resident, conduct skin assessments, or escalate wound treatment
• Falls causing fractures or head injuries when the facility failed to implement or follow a fall prevention plan for a resident with documented fall risk
• Medication errors, including wrong medications, missed doses, or dangerous drug interactions, resulting from inadequate staff oversight
• Malnutrition or dehydration when staff fail to provide adequate assistance with meals and fluids, or fail to monitor and document intake
• Untreated infections that progress to sepsis when staff miss clinical warning signs or fail to contact physicians in a timely way
• Elopement injuries or death when a cognitively impaired resident wanders and the facility fails to maintain adequate supervision or secure exits

The Scale of the Problem: What the Federal Data Shows

The scope of preventable nursing home harm is substantial. A foundational HHS Office of Inspector General study found that 22 percent of Medicare beneficiaries experienced adverse events during skilled nursing facility stays, and that 59 percent of those events were clearly or likely preventable. Physician reviewers attributed the preventable harm primarily to substandard treatment, inadequate resident monitoring, and failure or delay of necessary care. These are not exceptional cases; they are the predictable result of systemic conditions that exist in a significant portion of nursing homes across the country and in California.

More recently, the HHS Office of Inspector General documented 42,864 serious falls resulting in hospitalization among Medicare-enrolled nursing home residents in a single year, with 1,911 resulting in death during hospitalization. The same report found that nursing homes failed to properly report 43 percent of those serious falls, meaning the true scope of harm in the sector is substantially larger than what published statistics suggest.

California Laws That Allow You to Sue for Nursing Home Neglect

The Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act

California's Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15600, is the primary statute governing nursing home neglect claims in California. It was enacted because the legislature recognized that standard negligence remedies were insufficient deterrents for the systemic failures that repeatedly harm elderly residents. Under the Act, when a facility's neglect is reckless, oppressive, fraudulent, or malicious, families can recover attorney's fees and enhanced damages in addition to standard compensation. This elevated remedy is available specifically in nursing home neglect cases that go beyond ordinary carelessness.

General Negligence Law

In addition to the Elder Abuse Act, California's general negligence law applies when a nursing home breaches its duty of care to a resident and that breach causes harm. General negligence claims may be appropriate when conduct does not reach the recklessness threshold required for enhanced remedies under the Elder Abuse Act but still resulted in compensable injury. Attorneys often evaluate both frameworks to determine which provides the best avenue for recovery given the specific facts of a case.

Who Can Be Sued for Nursing Home Neglect?

California law allows negligence claims against multiple parties in the nursing home setting. Depending on the facts, potentially liable parties can include:

• The nursing home facility itself, which is responsible for systemic failures in staffing levels, staff training, supervision, and the policies that govern care
• Corporate ownership entities that control budgets and staffing decisions across facilities, when their profit-driven policies created the conditions for neglect
• Individual staff members whose specific failures caused direct harm to the resident
• Physicians of record who failed to respond appropriately to documented clinical deterioration or who ordered care below accepted standards

Who Can File a Nursing Home Neglect Lawsuit?

The person who may file depends on the nature of the claim:

• The resident who suffered the neglect can file a claim directly if they have the legal capacity to do so
• A legal guardian or family member with power of attorney can file on behalf of a resident who lacks the capacity to pursue the claim independently
• In wrongful death cases, eligible family members under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 377.60 include surviving spouses, domestic partners, and children
• The estate's personal representative may pursue a companion survival action under CCP Section 377.30 for harm the resident suffered before death

Steps to Take If You Suspect Nursing Home Neglect

1. Document everything immediately. Photograph any visible injuries before the facility treats or documents them. Write down the date, time, what you observed, and the names of any staff members who were present.
2. Request records in writing. Ask for all incident reports, the current care plan, nursing notes, skin assessments, and any physician orders related to the resident's condition. Put the request in writing and keep a copy.
3. File a complaint with CDPH. Report the neglect to the California Department of Public Health at (800) 554-0354. A complaint can trigger an unannounced inspection of the facility.
4. Contact the Ombudsman. The California Long-Term Care Ombudsman at (800) 231-4024 can send an independent advocate to investigate and can mediate disputes between families and facilities.
5. Report criminal neglect to the AG. When neglect is severe, report it to the California Attorney General's Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse at (800) 722-0432.
6. Consult an elder abuse attorney. An attorney can assess your legal options, identify all potentially liable parties, and advise whether the evidence supports a claim before any deadlines expire.

What Compensation Is Available?

When a nursing home neglect claim is successful, families can recover:

• Medical expenses incurred as a result of the neglect, including hospitalization, wound treatment, and related care
• Compensation for the resident's physical pain and suffering
• Compensation for emotional distress caused by the neglect
• Funeral and burial costs in wrongful death cases
• Attorney's fees and enhanced damages when the facility's conduct was reckless or malicious under the Elder Abuse Act
• Punitive damages in cases of extreme or malicious conduct

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact The Elder Justice Firm for a Free Consultation

If your loved one suffered harm in a California nursing home due to neglect, you have real legal options under both California elder abuse law and general negligence law. At The Elder Justice Firm, we investigate nursing home neglect cases thoroughly, work with medical experts to establish the causal link between facility failures and resident harm, and pursue full compensation on your family's behalf. We handle all cases on contingency, meaning no fees unless we recover for you. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.