Elder Law Answers
How Can We Convince My Father That Moving from the Nursing Home to Our House Is Not an Option?
My disabled father is currently in a nursing home but wants to move in with my husband and me. He needs consta...
Read moreHow Can We Publicly Complain About a Care Manager and Still Get a Refund?
- May 4th, 2015
Q
We hired a geriatric care manager (GCM) to give us recommendations about caring for our mother. We were very unhappy with the product and service and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) asking for a refund of the fee (the GCM is a BBB member). The GCM's response to the BBB included information that we believe violated our privacy. A personal injury lawyer told us that because the GCM was responding to our complaint, what he/she said would likely be “protected” and thus not a violation of privacy law (we are in California). The GCM wants us to sign away our right to say anything to anyone about this before giving the refund, and says that if we don't sign, he/she might consider suing us for defamation.
A
I can see the dilemma. You want to get your money back and protect others from someone you feel did not perform the services he/she promised. The GCM wants to maintain his/her livelihood. The threat of a suit for defamation seems a bit over the top, but I have no expertise in this field. I don’t think you are going to get everything you want – both the ability to speak publicly about your experience and a refund. You should probably make a choice based in large part on how much of a threat to others you feel this person is. If you decide to forego the refund and make your complaints public, it would make sense to get legal advice on the defamation issue. But given the fact that life is short, you might be best off accepting the refund and moving on.
For more about geriatric care managers, click here.
Local Elder Law Attorneys in Ashburn, VA
Meet Judith Mitnick
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Judith Mitnick
Needham Mitnick & Pollack, PLC
Judith Mtinick is well known for acting as a guardian, conservator, trustee or agent on behalf of clients or by court appointment. This experience gives her a wide perspective and extensive practical knowledge that she uses when advising clients in drafting their planning documents. Her experience, as a court appointed...
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Meet Jean Ball
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Hale Ball Carlson Baumgartner Murphy PLC
Jean Galloway Ball is certified in Elder Law by the National Elder Law Foundation. She is a 1977 honors graduate of the National Law Center, George Washington University, and she did her undergraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1971. She is admitted to practice in Vir...
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Meet Ron Landsman
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Ron M. Landsman has been practicing elder law since 1983, before it was known as elder law, originally with Landsman and Laster, Washington, D.C., then Landsman, Eakes and Laster, also in Arlington, VA, and since 1990 in his own practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. He has been among the most active members of the...
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