How Do You Overcome Challenges in a CILA Abuse Case?

Handling CILA abuse cases becomes difficult because the victims often can’t speak for themselves, either because they’ve died as a result of the abuse or because the reason that they’re in the CILA is that they have challenges, whether developmentally or cognitively, in communicating their needs. So, to handle a CILA case, you’re often not going to get evidence from the very person that you’re representing who has the most knowledge about it. That’s why you need an attorney who knows where to look. When you’re prosecuting a CILA abuse case, you want to make sure that you gather all of the evidence that’s available from the CILA, their records, medical records. You want to depose or interview the staff who were at the facility at the time of the incident. You want to look into the background of the employees who are working to see if they had any kind of prior indications that they were not fit to be working at that facility. One of the most helpful resources in prosecuting a CILA case are the first responders because the first responders come after an incident has occurred, and they often get the story before anyone has had time to think about what would happen if a lawsuit was filed. So very often, the records of the police, fire department, EMS personnel, or the hospital will paint a picture of what happened leading up to the events that caused the injury.