Can I obtain punitive damages in a nursing home lawsuit?

Video Transcript

Generally not, but it can be done. Punitive damages are designed to punish and deter. They are extra damages, you might say. So, in instances of simple negligence, let’s say that a nursing home employee is negligent in the way they’re handling your loved one and allow them to fall and break a bone. That’s negligence. Punitive damages would not be applied to a case like that. But, an example that may differ: If a nursing home hires an employee that was, say, guilty of mistreating patients at another facility, and they should have known that, but they put them in a situation -employ them in a situation- where they do it again and again, and your loved one is injured by that person who should have never been at that facility to begin with, then you may have an example of not just negligence, but wantonness.