Firm recognized for successful suits against nursing homes
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HATTIESBURG — Last month, the National Law Journal listed Wilkes & McHugh, P.A., a pioneer in filing nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits, as one of the top 20 plaintiff’s firms in the nation, primarily because of the $23.5 million in Mississippi courtroom verdicts in the last two years. “It’s great to be honored in this way, but it’s really about protecting this country’s elderly and making sure their quality of life is not compromised,” said James McHugh, an associate of the firm. “I’d like to think we’ve made a substantial difference in the way nursing homes operate.” The $23.5 million in Mississippi jury verdicts is part of the $64 million the law firm has earned for nursing home clients in three states since 2002. “The conduct of the nursing homes would have meant jail time in a criminal setting,” added McHugh. James Wilkes II of Tampa, Fla., and Tim McHugh of Hattiesburg initially joined forces in 1985, around the same time an elderly woman approached Wilkes with a stack of horrific photographs that a funeral director had taken of her sister’s corpse, depicting a malnourished body covered with bedsores. Because neither partner had expertise in nursing home neglect, they turned down the case. But when no other attorneys would take the case, primarily because aged clients don’t represent significant economic loss and therefore fetch smaller jury awards, Wilkes and McHugh reconsidered. By resurrecting Florida’s little-known 1976 residents’ rights law to sue for neglect, as a separate cause of action beyond simple negligence, the firm won the family a substantial confidential settlement, and unwittingly… Source : accessmylibrary.com |