| Nursing Home Abuse Legal Glossary
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Side Effect: A problem caused by
medical treatment or medication. For example, if you take medication to
relieve a headache, your stomach may become upset.
Skilled Nursing Care: Health-care
services given by or under the supervision of licensed nurses and also
under the general direction of a doctor.
Skilled Nursing Facility: A
facility that provides skilled nursing care or rehabilitation services.
Sodomy: Generally, oral or anal
sex without consent.
Specialist: A doctor who treats
only specific illnesses, body parts, or persons within a certain age
group.
Standard of Care: In the law of
negligence, the degree of care which a reasonable, prudent or careful
person should exercise under the same or similar circumstances. If the
standard falls below that established by law for the protection of
others against unreasonable risk of harm, the person may be liable for
damages resulting from such conduct.
Standard of Proof or Burden of Proof:
Degree of proof required in a specific kind of case to prevail. In the
majority of civil cases, it is proof by a preponderance of the evidence.
Stare Decisis: Policy of the
courts to not overturn precedents; adherence to precedents.
Statute: Law passed by congress.
Statute of Limitations: The time
prescribed by statute in which a plaintiff can bring a lawsuit.
Subpoena: Command to appear at a
certain place and time to give testimony on a matter.
Subpoena Duces Tecum: Command to
produce some document or paper.
Substantive Law: The body of law
that creates, defines and regulates right.
Sue: The act of bringing a
lawsuit.
Suit or Lawsuit: Generally, a
court action brought by one person, the plaintiff, against another, the
defendant, seeking compensation for some injury or enforcement of a
right.
Summons: Formal document beginning
a civil action or special proceeding which is a means to gain
jurisdiction over a party. Also, a document directed to a sheriff or
other authorized person ordering him to serve the person named on the
summons that must appear at a certain place and time to respond to the
action.
Supplier: A company, person, or
agency that provides a certain medical item or service, such as a
hospital bed or wheelchair.
Survival Action: A survival action
is brought by the administrator of a deceased person's estate in order
to recover loss to the estate resulting from a tort. A survival action,
unlike a wrongful death action, is not a new cause of action. Where
death is caused by negligence, both a survival action and a wrongful
death action may be brought.
Survival Statutes: Statutory law
that provides for a legal action to continue after the death of a person
involved in the action.
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