Can New Jersey Group Homes Be Held Liable For Lapses in Care?

In its 2024 annual report, the New Jersey Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families raised concerns about services and supports for individuals and families, including issues affecting residential settings. These homes purport to provide care for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, but numerous reports over the past decade have indicated that the quality of care residents receive consistently falls short.

Staffing shortages, subpar training, willful neglect, and even abuse put vulnerable group home residents at risk for a variety of injuries, illnesses, and other complications. When group homes fail, residents and their families may choose to file civil claims against negligent facilities and their staff. But when, exactly, can group homes be held accountable for resident accidents, illnesses, or injuries?

Here’s an overview of the current state of group home care in the state of New Jersey and an explanation of how families can hold facilities accountable when their negligence or misconduct causes harm to vulnerable residents.

Group homes in New Jersey: What you need to know

The exact number of group home residents in the state of New Jersey is constantly in flux and thus is a bit hard to pin down. However, if it gives you any sense of what we are dealing with, recent reports indicate that 3,665 New Jersey residents with disabilities are on the waiting list for the state’s Community Care Program.

With some community members waiting the better part of a decade to receive access to the funding and disability services they need, it’s unconscionable that so many group home residents end up suffering at the hands of the very people entrusted to care for them. Despite some group homes receiving annual payouts totaling up to $500,000 per resident, the quality of care in many of these facilities has remained far below accepted standards, resulting in an epidemic of group home-related injury cases.

Common causes of group home injuries

According to a recent watchdog report, the state fully investigates only about 2% of the roughly 14,000 concerns reported each year about group homes, generally limiting investigations to the most serious cases, such as broken bones, burns, or a collapsed lung. These reports cover a wide variety of care lapses, including neglect, abuse, communicable diseases, and even resident-on-resident crime. Any of these concerns can cause disastrous consequences for the vulnerable residents of our local group homes, and many have long-term ramifications that impact residents and their loved ones.

Here are just a few examples of common care lapses that can cause harm to New Jersey group home residents:

• Medication errors like missed or inaccurate doses
• Poor facility maintenance
• Subpar food quality
• Understaffing leading to insufficient supervision
• Inconsistent adherence to hygiene protocols
• Physical altercations between residents
• Lack of emergency training or preparedness
• Physical, verbal, or sexual abuse perpetrated by staff members

Any of these factors could pose direct dangers to residents and cause a wide variety of injuries, illnesses, and other safety challenges. Given the amount of trust the public places in these facilities, violations of accepted care standards in these settings can be particularly egregious and trigger public calls for accountability.

On a more individual level, however, these lapses in care often come at high costs for residents and their loved ones. Health complications, serious injuries, and emotional trauma don’t just go away – they require ongoing, comprehensive care to address effectively. That’s why many group home residents and family members choose to pursue civil claims against facilities that cause damage by violating their duty of care.

Who is liable for group home injuries?

Liability in cases involving group home facilities can be complicated, and sometimes multiple parties share responsibility for facility failures. Generally speaking, however, residents and their loved ones may be within their rights to file a claim against a facility or its employees if they can show that:

1. The alleged at-fault party owed the victim a legal duty of care.
2. The alleged at-fault party violated that duty of care through their actions or inaction.
3. The injured party suffered identifiable harm.
4. The injured party can show that the harm they suffered was the direct result of the at-fault party’s breach of care.

In short, if you can clearly demonstrate that a group home or its representatives failed to exercise requisite levels of care and directly caused harm to residents as a result, you may be able to recover compensation for any injury-related losses.

In the context of group home facilities, liability may fall to (or be shared by) care staff, supervisors, administrators, medical providers, or even third-party maintenance or transportation professionals. When widespread, systemic failures are involved, injured parties may be able to file claims against the facility as a whole.

Your personal injury lawyer can help you identify all potential sources of liability in your case in order to maximize the value and viability of your claim. Depending on the specific facts of your case, they may end up suggesting you hold multiple entities accountable for your losses or that you zero in on one responsible party in particular in order to maximize the value of your claim.

What to do if you suspect group home abuse or negligence

If you believe a loved one has been neglected or abused in a New Jersey group home, there are some things you can do to help. Here are a few steps you should follow to protect the health and safety of your loved one while laying the framework for a potential legal claim:

1. Seek competent medical care immediately.
2. Make a complaint through the appropriate New Jersey Department of Human Services reporting pathway, which may include Division of Developmental Disabilities Consumer Protection, Adult Protective Services, or the Office of Program Integrity and Accountability, depending on the individual’s age and setting.
3. Take photographs of visible injuries or any unsafe living conditions your loved one was subjected to.
4. Request copies of any incident reports from the group home administration.
5. Look for any additional evidence components, such as pill bottles, staff schedules, and CCTV footage.
6. Consult with an attorney as soon as possible to discuss your options.

Getting a lawyer on your side early on can help to ensure no critical evidence mysteriously disappears before a thorough investigation takes place. Your attorney can send preservation requests for vital evidence, conduct their own investigation, and help you determine whether or not you may have a viable claim against the negligent facility.

Final thoughts

Don’t let negligent facilities get away with shirking their responsibilities. Even small oversights can have dire consequences for residents and their families, and there’s no excuse for putting quality care on the back burner. When a facility falls short of ensuring the health and safety of its residents, it deserves to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

At Ferrara & Gable, we understand the unique challenges associated with pursuing claims against group homes and other long-term care facilities. Our compassionate, experienced team has been serving the people of Cherry Hill for more than 50 years, and we are as committed as ever to standing up for what’s right – even if that means facing down systemic failures.

If your loved one suffered an injury due to neglect in a group home facility, give us a call at 856-276-0466 or fill out our online contact form for a free consultation with a member of our team. We are standing by to lend a compassionate ear and help you decide how best to move forward in your pursuit of justice.