South Florida Medical Malpractice Attorney

As Abuses in Assisted Living Facilities Come to Light, Reforms -- And Civil ...

A recent report by The Miami Herald highlighted negligence within Florida ALFs -- and uncovering those horrors is a good start, says senior partner at Miami-based Gerson & Schwartz. But government, citizens, and victims rights lawyers need to ramp up efforts to prevent needless injury and death

(PRWEB) June 21, 2011

As revealed by a groundbreaking investigative report published by The Miami Herald in May, Florida's assisted living facilities (ALFs) have seen scores -- and perhaps hundreds -- of deaths under questionable circumstances. The newspaper obtained the confidential records of 70 people who died in the past eight years due to the actions of their caregivers -- and provided horrific details for some of these cases. But while uncovering egregious negligence within the Florida ALF community is to be commended, much more needs to be done, says Miami injury lawyer and victims rights advocate Philip M. Gerson . The lightly regulated industry, he warns, has become a recipe for disaster -- and needless death.

“What the Herald article showed is something that injury lawyers and advocates for crime victims have known for a long time, that the ALF system is broken and dangerous in Florida,” says Gerson, who was interviewed by the Herald's Michael Sallah as the story took form. “There is minimal regulation of ALFs and the state lacks the resources to enforce what rules do exist. That's a deadly combination, as horror after horror exposed by the Herald -- incapacitated patients not given necessary medicine, elderly residents not provided medical care after falls, mysteriously bruised and battered victims -- made all too clear. Most of these cases were never prosecuted because Florida just doesn't have the resources to police what is clearly an area that urgently needs to be policed.”

While tougher rules, stricter enforcement, and more investigators would be welcome, says Gerson, budget pressures and an administration that favors less regulation, not more, make those solutions difficult. “The politics of Florida see the state taking the ‘deregulate everything' approach,” says Gerson, who has represented injury victims for more than 40 years, and is a board member of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Indeed, given how he sees the current political climate in Florida, Gerson believes the best hope for exposing egregious ALF negligence -- and helping to prevent future instances of it -- lay in civil lawsuits, where victims of ALF abuse, or their families, take the facilities to court to account for their actions. “The reality is that state agencies and the criminal justice system lack the resources to investigate and prosecute the people causing the harm,” says Gerson. “So private rights of enforcement -- filing a civil lawsuit and taking an ALF to court -- is the only way to let the industry know that they can't neglect the people entrusted to their care, and that they're going to pay a price if they do.

Florida Personal Injury Attorney Robert E. Gluck « Holistic ...

Upon graduating from the University of South Florida with Honors, with an Undergraduate Degree in Political Science, Mr. Gluck, attended the University of Miami School of Law, during which time clerked for Janet Reno, who was the State Attorney in Dade County, Florida at the time. Mr. Gluck received his Juris Doctorate Degree in 1989 and graduated Cum Laude (top 10% of his class). Mr. Gluck also was the Associate Editor of the Entertainment and Sports Law Review and was the school mock trial champion and represented the University of Miami in the National Mock Trial Competition, which he came in second place, nationally. Upon being admitted to the Florida Bar, Mr. Gluck began his law career as an Assistant State Attorney for Janet Reno, prosecuting complex criminal cases. While an Assistant State Attorney for Janet Reno, Mr. Gluck learned much about the complexities of practicing law and he remains grateful for that experience. During his tenure over the next several years, Mr. Gluck worked for Friedman and Associates, P.A., a large Florida personal injury firm in North Miami. During his tenure with the firm however, Mr. Gluck discovered that such a large organization often falls short when it comes to providing service to its’ clients on a personal level. Therefore, in 1998, he made the decision to start his own personal injury practice and founded Robert E. Gluck, P.A. Over the years Mr. Gluck has built his practice on the belief that personal injury victims need a Florida lawyer who is aggressive, determined and accessible. His philosophy, along with his sterling reputation with defense attorneys and insurance adjusters, has given his firm the edge in obtaining large settlements or verdicts. Through memberships in the Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Florida Bar he is connected to a wealth of knowledge and is in touch with Court decisions as they occur. If you have a case that falls outside his area of expertise, Mr. Gluck will provide quality referrals and work with those lawyers to insure that you receive the same kind of quality service clients have come to expect from Robert E. Gluck, P.A. He likes to refer to his firm as “home base”, where clients can contact him at any time regarding any legal matter. He will evaluate your situation and, if he cannot assist you, he will bring in other lawyers for the appropriate legal representation.