Colorado Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers - Practice Areas

Nursing Home Litigation
Civil Rights and Other Areas of Practice

Nursing Home Litigation
Nursing home litigation has been a central part of my practice ever since I started at Legal Aid in 1974. My first major lawsuit resulted in the closure of a facility in Lakewood that was known as Heritage House. While we successfully sued the federal and state governments to change the inspections system, the microcosm focus of that case was the abject neglect of numerous residents at the Heritage House facility. 57 of the 58 residents had no care plans. A woman in a body cast had flies in her face. There were cockroaches in cereal boxes. A young man was literally eaten up to the point of an above the waist amputation from pressure ulcers. Virtually every type of abuse and neglect I have seen since was present at one location.

Since I began private practice I have represented many families in nursing home cases. I have seen the extraordinary carnage from these facilities more times than I care to remember. I remain passionate about this work because it is intolerable to me that these situations persist and continue to occur.

The vast majority of cases I handle involve clear neglect. They emerge from staff at these facilities simply not doing what had to be done. There is also abuse, rapes, and the like but these are not as common. What is unfortunately still far too common is that people do not do what they should do for our loved ones. People fall down staircases where doors were left off. Dementia residents wander out into the streets. People fall and fall out of chairs and beds until they are fractured so badly they cannot be fixed. Ambulation is lost. Lives our lost. We see people who have been dehydrated from no water, or who develop serious pressure ulcers. People develop contractures from lack of range of motion.

The problem is that in nursing homes a hundred or more residents come up to bat every inning. On the other side, defending these human "at bats", each of them with genuine human needs, is a pitcher with a torn ball, a catcher whose glove is without padding. Maybe there is a short shop. Maybe there is one other in the infield and one in the outfield.

My philosophy of representation is pretty basic. I represent people who have been shocked or injured badly from neglect or abuse in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. I see my job as helping them protest that what has occurred cannot be done to them silently without complaint. People I see often feel that they just cannot go on without speaking up.

Other Areas of Practice
I have been in private practice since 1979. Since then, I have also been involved in a number of other class actions and major litigations in the nursing home, civil rights, employment discrimination and environmental pollution cases. I was part of teams of lawyers who sued Martin Marietta and Shell Oil in relationship to major environmental contaminations. I have also always had an interest in racial discrimination issues. I have represented whistle blowers who have been terminated for speaking out on matters of public concern, as well as oppressed religious minority groups.

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