A woman who saw her mother choking on mucus at her nursing home during a FaceTime call has filed a lawsuit against the facility for negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Nina Kohn, a professor at the Syracuse University College of Law, has long focused on the intersection of the law and the experiences of older adults, including those who need long-term care. In recent months, she has helped draw attention to three policies that closely align with nursing home reforms the Biden administration announced in February.
August Hieber created Proud to Thrive, the first program in Chicago specifically designed to provide culturally responsive legal advocacy to LGBT older adults. Hieber recognized this population is less likely to access resources because of past experiences with discrimination and worked with the Center for Disability & Elder Law to host legal clinics and train other legal professionals on how to offer services.
A justice on Massachusetts’ top court has declined to impose an interim suspension on a lawyer convicted of neglect in Rhode Island for failing to provide adequate care for his mother who has dementia.
ABA President Patricia Lee Refo is urging the U.S. House of Representatives to pass bipartisan legislation to help prevent elder abuse across the country.
The legal profession may struggle to identify lawyers experiencing cognitive decline, partly because those who are struggling are good at hiding their problem.
A grandparent who saw her 2-year-old granddaughter get hit by falling debris, causing her death, can recover emotional distress damages as a bystander under the “zone of danger” rule, New York’s top court has ruled.
Karen Murphy Jensen, a senior judge with Maryland’s Caroline County Circuit Court, has spent the past five years working to reform guardianship court practices. “Judges are really embracing wanting to know more about guardianship cases as well as the alternatives to guardianship,” says Jensen, the chair of the Guardianship and Vulnerable Adults Work Group of the Maryland Judicial Council’s Domestic Law Committee.
Feb 1, 2021 12:20 AM CST
Karen Murphy Jensen is working to reform guardianship practices. Photo courtesy of Maryland Judiciary.
Many legal services providers have worked in the past year to change how they reach and assist their clients, particularly those who are older and at higher risk for developing more severe cases of COVID-19. While some created or expanded their partnerships with community organizations, others moved their services online or outdoors.
A growing number of negligence suits are being filed across the country against nursing homes and other long-term care facilities by families whose relatives died from the coronavirus while living in such facilities.
The ABA Journal wants to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We are now accepting thoughtful, non-promotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors.
