Beware of
Arbitration Clauses in Nursing Home Admission Agreements
More and more nursing homes are hiding mandatory arbitration clauses
in their admission contracts. These clauses eliminate the
resident's (or family's) legal right to hold the facility
accountable for abuse and neglect in a court of law. Many such
clauses allow the nursing home to sue the resident, or their family,
for non-payment of charges but do not allow the facility to be sued
for negligent or abusive medical care. Seems a little unfair to
us! Make sure you read very carefully all documents which must be
signed during the nursing home admission process.
We are fighting the legality of these
clauses for our clients. Recently, we obtained a favorable ruling
for a client from a Virginia court which held the arbitration clause
to be unenforceable under the facts of our client's claim. Below
you will find the legal memoranda filed with the court on this
issue, along with the court's decision finding the arbitration
clause unenforceable and the Virginia Supreme Court's order denying
an appeal requested by the facility. We hope you find this
information helpful.
Bishop v. MFA
Resident's
Memoranda in Opposition to Arbitration
Resident's
Second Memoranda in Opposition to Arbitration
Nursing Home's Memorandum in
Support of Arbitration
Trial Court
Ruling Refusing Arbitration
Virginia
Supreme Court's Denial of Appeal
Bennett v. MFA
2006 Arbitration Ruling - Circuit Court of Franklin County, Virginia
Brennan v. Atria Assisted Living
2006 Decision: United States District Court, Eastern Division
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