On July 6, 2010, the Janssen Law Firm and attorneys from two other firms received for their clients the largest jury verdict in the United States this year. The case is Lavender v. Skilled Healthcare Group, Case No. DR060264, Superior Court of California, Humboldt County. The plaintiff class is represented by W. Timothy Needham, Michael Crowley, Amelia Burroughs and Patrick Griego of the Janssen Law Firm from Eureka, by Michael Thamer from Callahan, and by Chris Healey and Aaron T. Winn of the Luce Forward firm from San Diego. This is the highest verdict ever achieved against a nursing home chain and one of the highest verdicts in the United States this decade.
The case was filed as a class action for the purpose of requiring the defendants to staff their facilities according to California law, which requires that skilled nursing facilities staff at a minimum of 3.2 nursing hours per patient day. Prior to the class action, the plaintiffs’ attorneys had litigated a number of personal injury cases against nursing homes owned by the same parent corporation, Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. During those individual cases, the attorneys identified what they considered to be serious and dangerous understaffing at the facilities. The result was the class action, the purpose of which was to address systematic understaffing at California skilled nursing facilities owned by Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc.
Later this week, on July 15, 2010, the attorneys will present the punitive damages aspect of the case to the jury. Plaintiffs’ attorneys, including the Janssen Law Firm, will also request that the Court impose an order on defendants that they comply with California law with respect to nursing staff requirements.
There has been a great deal of local and national press regarding the verdict, some of which is included in the following links:
The Times-Standard, Eureka: July 7, 2010; July 8, 2010; July 10, 2010.
The Orange County Register: July 8, 2010.
The Wall Street Journal: July 7, 2010.
Bloomberg: July 7, 2010.
Reuters: July 7, 2010.
Forbes: July 7, 2010.
Posted in Amelia Burroughs, Litigation | No Comments »
Tags: Amelia F. Burroughs, Michael Crowley, Skilled Healthcare