The Legal Intelligencer
Amaris Elliott-Engel
(first of two-part series on The Future of Long-Term Care Litigation)
When Rhonda Hill Wilson started representing clients in the field of long-term care litigation, there was not a lot of interest in representing elder Pennsylvanians for the torts they might have been wronged by.
Damages were only thought of in an "economic sense," said Wilson, of the Law Offices of Rhonda Hill Wilson in Philadelphia, and the trial-lawyer bar was more interested in representing clients who were breadwinners.
But in recent years, the understanding has developed that "even a person who is elderly or aged has value in his or her life," Wilson said.
Plaintiffs and defense lawyers told The Legal that litigation against nursing homes and other facilities that provide care to older Pennsylvanians has ticked upward in the last decade, along with increased advertising by plaintiffs firms.
In 2010, 15.4 percent of Pennsylvanians were aged 65 or older, while 13 percent of all Americans were aged 65 or older, according to the last U.S. Census.
'FAVORABLE CLIMATE'
Lawyers prosecuting health professional liability actions traditionally sued doctors and hospitals, but those sort of lawsuits died down with tort reform, said William J. Mundy, a Harrisburg attorney who is co-chair of Burns White's health care and professional liability group and has a longtime practice focusing on long-term health care litigation.
To read the rest of the report I wrote for The Legal Intelligencer: http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202618550735
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
