Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.
(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)
Statutory Damages Under Section 1430(b)
Section 1430(b) entitles each affected resident to recover up to $500 for each violation. Each day that a facility fails to meet the minimum and/or adequate nurse staffing requirements constitutes a separate violation for each resident in the facility on the understaffed day. For days when the facility failed to provide at least 3.2 PPD, plaintiffs will ask the jury to find a single violation for each patient in the facility, as opposed to two violations for failing to provide adequate staffing (§1599.1) and minimum staffing (§1276.5).
Although plaintiffs need not prove personal injury or actual harm to recover under Section 1430(b), that does not mean that defendants’ understaffing resulted in only hypothetical harm, as defendants contend. Through testimony from class members, current and former employees, and expert witnesses, plaintiffs will show that understaffing results in real and tangible consequences.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.
Based on defendants’ own census information on the understaffed days, there are over one million violations during the Class Period. Plaintiffs’ recovery may also be subject to trebling under Civil Code section 3345. (Hood v. Harford Life & Accident Ins. (E.D. Cal. 2008) 567 F.Supp.2d 1221, 1229.) (See Part 5 of 7.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.