The bipartisan Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009 will prevent nursing homes from deliberately hiding clauses within the fine print of contracts that force seniors to surrender their right to trial by jury and enter an unfair and one-sided mandatory binding arbitration process. The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009 will help people like Dean Cole, who received unconscionable care from a negligent nursing corporation.  Suffering from dementia, Dean needed help eating meals every day; but during his 22 day residency, Dean lost 20.6 pounds without his physician or wife ever being notified.  After being admitted to the hospital, he was found to be severely dehydrated.  Dean died less than a month later.  His family sought justice by bringing a suit against the nursing home for negligent care, but learned they would be forced into one-sided mandatory binding arbitration on the corporation’s own terms and denied the right to trial by jury.  The HensonFuerst Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers encourage you to show your support for this much-needed bill by contacting our U.S. Senators from North Carolina, The Hon. Kay Hagen, http://hagan.senate.gov/ and The Hon. Richard Burr, http://burr.senate.gov/public/.

On April 9, 2008, Senator Mel Martinez, proposed legislation that provides that a pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreement between a long-term care facility and a resident shall not be enforceable or valid.  Such legislation is critical to protecting the legal rights of residents and their families.  This is perhaps one of the most important bills in recent history pending before Congress.  We encourage all invovled to please write their senators and representative to support this bill.  For the full text of the bill and more information, click HERE.