One of the alarming trends I am seeing in our nursing home litigation is that nursing homes are intentionally not buying liability insurance.  Liability insurance is what would cover them in the event that they negligently injure one of their residents.  Many people think that nursing homes are required to carry this type of coverage, and they are in some states.  However, in Missouri there is no such law.  You may ask, why would they not carry insurance?  Most people would think that they are trying to save money, but that is not the real reason.  Rather, the real reason is to try and dissuade any lawsuits against them, no matter how bad their conduct.  As personal injury lawyers, we spend countless hours and sometimes more than a hundred thousand dollars of our money to finance case expenses.  But few lawyers are going to make that kind of investment when the defendant does not have any insurance - and thus, no one to pay any settlement or verdict. 

Case in point, several years ago we represented a family for the death of their uncle due to his nursing home's outrageously negligent conduct.  What we found once we filed the lawsuit was that the home claimed that they continuously operated on a loss, and that there was no money, nor was there ever going to be any money, to pay the family.  They also claimed that there was no insurance coverage, and they basically told us to buzz off.  We refused to take no for an answer and kept on digging, and ultimately found that this home was set up as part of a corporate chain.  This is a tactic that we are now seeing all across the country.  What happens is that there is a high-level parent corporation that owns all of the nursing homes.  They then create several dummy sub-corporations.  These sub-corporations then have further sub-corporations, and on down the line until we get to the actual nursing home.  The reason that this tactic can be so dangerous is because the main purpose of the corporate structure is to insulate liability.  This means that no one else other than that specific nursing home, its own corporation, can be held responsible for their negligence.  We found that they were funneling the money from the nursing home through other various corporations up to the main corporation.  On paper, this makes it look like the nursing home itself is dirt poor, but yet the top executives were rolling in cash.  They then try to tell you that there is no insurance policy and no money and that you are wasting your time and money by suing them.  I have even read press releases in which there are now seminars put on for high level executives for various nursing home chains to instruct them on how to properly set up this structure. 

In our case, we were ready to go to trial and actually got the evidence to show that all these various corporations were nothing but dummy corporations.  Of course, before we got to trial, the nursing home seemed to find some money and we entered into a confidential settlement.  However, this is a problem that happens all too often, and I know that there are many lawyers out there who have been persuaded to drop the case - and this means that there are plenty of injured clients who didn't get the justice they deserved.  I think it is imperative for Missouri to enact legislation requiring all nursing homes to retain a minimum level of liability insurance.

If you would like to speak to a St. Louis nursing home or elder abuse attorney, feel free to contact Josh Myers.  There are never any hourly fees, and it is always free to talk about your case.

One of the alarming trends I am seeing in our nursing home litigation is that nursing homes are intentionally not buying liability insurance.  Liability insurance is what would cover them in the event that they negligently injure one of their residents.  Many people think that nursing homes are required to carry this type of coverage, and they are in some states.  However, in Missouri there is no such law.  Why do nursing homes not carry liability insurance?  I think it is because they are using this tactic to try and dissuade any lawsuits against them, no matter how bad their conduct. 

Case in point, several years ago we represented a family for the death of their uncle due to his nursing home's outrageously negligent conduct.  What we found once we filed the lawsuit was that the home claimed that they continuously operated on a loss, and that there was no money, nor was there ever going to be any money, to pay the family.  They also claimed that there was no insurance coverage, and they basically told us to buzz off.  We refused to take no for an answer and kept on digging, and ultimately found that this home was set up as part of a corporate chain.  This is a tactic that we are now seeing all across the country.  What happens is that there is a high-level parent corporation that owns all of the nursing homes.  They then create several dummy sub-corporations.  These sub-corporations then have further sub-corporations, and on down the line until we get to the actual nursing home.  The reason that this tactic can be so dangerous is because the main purpose for the corporate structure is to insulate liability.  This means that no one other than that specific nursing home, its own corporation, can be held responsible for their negligence.  We found that they were funneling the money from the nursing home through other various corporations up to the main corporation.  On paper, this makes it look like the nursing home itself is dirt poor, but yet the top executives were rolling in cash.  They then try to tell you that there is no insurance policy and no money and that you are wasting your time and money by suing them.  I have even read press releases in which there are now seminars put on for high level executives of various nursing home chains to instruct them on how to properly set up this structure. 

In our case, we were ready to go to trial and actually got the evidence to show that all these various corporations were nothing but dummy corporations.  Of course, before we got to trial, the nursing home seemed to find some money and we entered into a confidential settlement.  However, this is a problem that happens all too often, and I know that there are many lawyers out there who have been persuaded to drop the case - and this means that there are plenty of injured clients who didn't get the justice they deserved.  I think it is imperative for Missouri to enact legislation requiring all nursing homes to retain a minimum level of liability insurance.

If you would like to speak to a St. Louis nursing home or elder abuse attorney, feel free to contact Josh Myers.  There are never any hourly fees, and it is always free to talk about your case.