Nursing Home Assistant Pleads Not Guilty in Assault and Battery on Resident

A former nursing home assistant has pled not guilty to an assault and battery charge against a 70-year-old patient. The patient was at a nursing home in Boston and suffers from cognitive impairments, as well as physical disabilities. The woman will be back in court on November 13 to have a pretrial conference over the matter. Witnesses claimed that they saw the woman strike the man in the chest with her hand.

If the nursing home worker turns out to be guilty of the crime, it would still be possible to file a nursing home neglect lawsuit against the nursing home, depending upon the circumstances. There is something of a perception that somebody being charged with a criminal infraction makes it more difficult to sue them or essentially serves the same purpose as suing them, but this is not at all the case.

Understanding the Difference

The law that has to do with charging people with crimes and the law that has to do with suing people for negligence are separate in many regards. If somebody is charged with a crime, that doesn't mean that they cannot be sued for negligence or that the people responsible for supervising a person cannot be sued for negligence. In fact, you can still go after someone and the fact that they may have been convicted of a criminal offense may actually make it more likely that your civil case against them would win.

Negligence

You've probably heard about the authorities charging people with criminal negligence. Negligence plays a huge part in lawsuits. Negligence essentially means not doing what any reasonable person would have done in the same situation to prevent another human being from coming to harm or to protect their property from coming to harm. You'll see people charged with criminal negligence in cases where they end up getting someone seriously injured or killed as a result of a car accident that should've never happened or in similar situations.
An attorney can help you go after a nursing home for negligence when they fail to protect a resident as they should have. Whether you are the resident yourself or a family member of the resident and you're suing on their behalf, personal injury attorneys can help you in these situations. The best thing you can do is talk to one right away, as there are limitations on how long you have to sue.