Eldercare Abuse Investigations

California’s The Elder Abuse Act is a powerful set of laws designed to help prevent neglect and abuse of citizens aged 65 and over. (Welfare & Institutions Code §§15600 et. seq. and Penal Code §368.) "Abuse” is defined broadly and includes any physical abuse, neglect, financial abuse, abandonment, isolation, abduction, or other treatment resulting in physical harm, pain, or mental suffering. In this article, I will focus on pursuing investigations into abuse at Nursing Homes and Residential Care facilities where the "Standard of Care” was not met.

Care homes, especially ones owned by large corporations, can make it difficult to find all the owners and responsible entities. Often my first assignment is to help find whom to list as defendants. I utilize records at the Department of Public Health, Recorders office, real estate records and court records, and I Google the hell out of every name, address, fax and phone number I find. Eventually the puzzle pieces of ownership come together. You’ll want to find the kind of evidence that will convince the judge that you have named the proper defendants, in case they bring a motion to dismiss.

Tips for looking for company principals and documentary evidence:

• Search at the Recorders’ office for documents that the corporation or care facility entity has filed.

• Examine court cases that the corporations themselves filed.

• Tax liens against the corporation or subsidiary may show multiple addresses.

• Examine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings for publicly traded companies.

• Cross check the names of officers in the corporations’ records, wholly owned subsidiaries, and smaller individual or group homes to see whether they hold positions in multiple entities.

• Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings by or against the corporation will often show addresses where supplies were sent or services were performed but with billing addresses to the corporation’s headquarters.

• Follow the money trail and look at real property records and recorded documents back to the formation of a corporation or subsidiary. These can tell the real story.

• The companies’ own websites, especially the older versions of the business’s website, will sometimes reveal unique case-breaker information.