We used to defend nursing homes. Now we hold them accountable.
We represent California families whose loved ones were neglected or abused in a nursing home. That is the whole of what we do. We are not a general injury firm that takes elder abuse cases on the side, and we do not run a volume practice. We take these cases because we understand them from the inside, and because the people they involve deserve someone who does.
We used to defend these facilities
Before we represented families, we defended nursing homes. We met at Elliot Snyder & Reid, a Redlands defense firm, in the late 1990s, and for years our work was to protect facilities and their insurers when a resident was hurt. We sat in the meetings, reviewed the same charts, and learned exactly how a facility builds a file to protect itself after something goes wrong.
That experience is the reason families hire us now. We know where the gaps in a facility's story tend to be, which records actually matter, and how a staffing decision made weeks earlier shows up as an injury later. When a home tells a family that a fall was unavoidable or a pressure sore just happened, we know how to test that against the home's own documents. Having been on the other side is not something we mention for effect. It is the core of how we work a case.
What we handle
We focus on nursing home and assisted living abuse and neglect throughout California: pressure sores, falls and fractures, dehydration and malnutrition, sepsis and untreated infections, medication errors, elopement, physical and sexual abuse, and wrongful death. If you want to understand how any of these cases work, our practice area pages explain them in plain language, and our resources and guides walk through everything from reading a facility's rating to the deadlines that apply to a claim.
Our results
Over the course of our practice, we have recovered millions of dollars for elder abuse victims and their families. Every case is different, and no lawyer can promise a result. What we can tell you is that we build cases the way we once defended them, from the records outward, and that we do not settle for a facility's first version of events.
How we work with families
The families who call us are usually in the middle of the worst stretch of their lives. We try to make one part of it simpler. The first consultation is free and confidential, and there is no pressure and no obligation. We work on a contingency fee, which means you pay nothing up front and no fee at all unless we recover for you. We are available around the clock, because these situations do not keep business hours, and we handle cases in every county in California. We meet with clients at offices across the state, including Long Beach, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Oakland, and we come to families when travel is hard.
The attorneys
Thomas Wallin
Thomas has practiced law in California for more than 25 years (State Bar #195616, admitted 1998). He started his career at Elliot Snyder & Reid defending nursing home and medical malpractice cases for facilities and their insurers, then spent more than a decade as a trial lawyer, including service as a Deputy Public Defender in Riverside County and eight years as a Judge Pro Tem for the Riverside County Superior Court. A graduate of UC Irvine, cum laude, and Southwestern University School of Law, he now represents families in nursing home abuse and neglect cases and is the named reviewer of record for the guidance published on this site. Read his full bio.
Thomas was selected each year from 2009 through 2019 for The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and from 2016 through 2019 he was named to the Nursing Home Trial Lawyers Association: Top 10 (Top 10 Nursing Home Trial Lawyers). Both are invitation-only professional organizations. Selection is not a guarantee of a result in any case.
Michael Young
Michael has been a member of the California Bar for more than 25 years (State Bar #205031, admitted 1999). He joined Elliot Snyder & Reid as an intern in 1998, became an associate attorney on his Bar admission, and spent seven years there defending nursing homes and their insurers before switching sides for good in 2005. A graduate of Southwestern University School of Law, he brings the defense playbook to every family case the firm handles. Read his full bio.
Why this work matters to us
California has more than a thousand nursing homes, and the public record shows that too many of them run short on the care residents were promised. Families place a parent or a spouse in a facility trusting that they will be safe, and when that trust is broken, the harm is often quiet and slow. Holding a facility accountable does two things at once: it helps one family, and it puts every other operator on notice that the records are being read. That is work worth doing.
Talk to us
If your loved one was harmed in a California nursing home, call (888) 999-0169 for a free, confidential consultation. We will listen, tell you honestly whether we think you have a case, and explain your options. You pay nothing unless we win. You can also send us a message any time.
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Disclaimer: this page is attorney advertising. It is not legal advice, and contacting Young & Wallin does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its own facts.