You Busted Your Ass on That Elder Abuse Complaint. Then BigLaw Showed Up and Stripped Everything Out.
We reviewed court orders from over 50 California elder abuse cases. Plaintiffs make the same avoidable mistakes. Here's the most fatal one.
Download the free Winn guide →You took the case on contingency. A family referred to you — a tragic situation, a vulnerable elder, a facility that failed her. You believed in it. You spent months building it.
Then you filed the complaint. And the defense firm showed up — the one that bills $800 an hour, the one that handles ten nursing home chains across five states, the one whose partners' parents don't stay at these facilities. They worked their way through your complaint. They filed the demurrer and the motion to strike.
The cause of action technically survived. But no punitive damages. No attorney's fees. No recovery for what your client's mother endured before she died.
You can't afford to take this case to trial anymore. But you can't abandon the family. So you're looking at another two years of work, on a case that's already upside down, waiting for a settlement that shouldn't have been this small.
Here's the thing: they didn't win that motion. You handed it to them.
We reviewed court orders from over 50 California elder abuse cases — real rulings, real outcomes, not law review speculation. The pattern is hard to watch. Plaintiffs' lawyers make avoidable mistakes. Obvious mistakes. They practically hand defense the opening.
We identified eight of them. The most fatal: failing to allege facts showing that the facility agreed to take on custodial care.
This is the Winn problem. Defense's first move is to argue they weren't a custodian — they were a healthcare provider. If that argument succeeds, the entire § 15657 framework collapses. No enhanced remedies. No fees. The economics of the case stop working. And it succeeds when the complaint doesn't give the court specific facts about what the facility agreed to do, what the elder couldn't do for herself, and why this was a custodial relationship — not a clinical one.
The free guide walks through this one element, from intake through filing:
- The intake question to ask before you sign the engagement letter — and what "good enough" looks like
- The planning worksheet — a fill-in template that forces you to document every custodial obligation before you draft
- The complaint allegation block — drop your facts in, close the Winn gap
Download it free. No obligation.
Get the Free Winn Custodial Relationship Guide
PDF guide + fillable Word planning template. Delivered instantly.
This is one of eight elements in the complete pre-complaint planning system. The full system is in Book 1: Get the Complaint Right — part of the "How to Survive Through Summary Judgment and Get to Trial" series. $97.