Drug court and Prop 36 programs offer California drug offenders a chance to avoid jail time. Instead, they work through a strict, supervised program that includes getting help through drug rehab.
Some participants will join inpatient or outpatient care, but either way, these drug treatment providers would still be liable for the safety and protection of patients.
Families would be able to sue and hold a negligent rehab facility liable if a loved one in the program suffered injury or an overdose death.
Drug Court and Prop 36 Drug Treatment Care
California provides an alternative to incarcerating drug-use offenders. To help Substance Use Disorder (SUD) victims get the help they need, the state uses a Drug Court and a Prop 36 program in place of traditional prosecution and punishment.
Drug Court: This is usually a court-supervised, structured drug treatment program ordered for non-violent, low-level drug offenders. Offenders would usually agree to enter the program before a trial. Participants complete detox and rehab and report to a county judge and probation officer to complete certain steps. The successful completion of the program (often around 12-months) can lead to charges being dismissed or reduced and avoiding jail time.
Prop 36 Drug Treatment Program: Prop 36 often goes further to require participants facing felony charges to complete education and job training while seeking help through a drug treatment center. This program would usually be entered after a conviction and as a condition of probation. Offenders may have to complete strict steps, submit to drug testing, and check in with the court for several years.
See: Liability Involving Contraband Control in Drug Rehab Clinics
Standing Up for Your Loved One
All patients deserve the utmost care and are protected by California’s Bill of Rights for patients.
A drug treatment clinic may have allowed relaxed supervision when working with a patient from the Drug Court program. They thought no one cared. You and your family will stand tall for a loved one, and we want to be there beside you.
Your family must seek justice and be supported through such a difficult time. Our lawyers get aggressive on your behalf to make sure negligent rehab facility owners can’t escape accountability.
When Drug Rehabs Are Liable for a Tragic Death
No matter the circumstances, every patient accepted into a drug rehab program is owed a “duty of care” from facility owners. When vulnerable patients are involved (perhaps struggling with Fentanyl use), that “duty of care” is only multiplied.
When rehab clinics fail in this care and allow someone to take their own life or overdose, owners can be held liable through lawsuits.
These facilities can promise families that they are a safe, drug-free place for a loved one to begin a recovery journey.
Facilities might be shown liable when their “secure” facilities are shown to be easy places to score drugs.
These other fairly obvious mistakes at facilities can also make it hard for companies to deny blame:
- Negligent Security: A security staff that allows a patient to bring drugs into a facility during intake. Security staff that doesn’t keep drugs from entering a facility from outside sources. Staff that doesn’t prevent assault.
- Negligent monitoring: Allowing a patient unsupervised time to overdose on drugs or self-harm. And then not spotting the medical emergency soon enough to take action to save a patient’s life.
- Negligent Response: Staff members who don’t know what to do in the event of an overdose to prevent a fatal outcome. A call for an ambulance that comes too late. Negligent training for staff members in the use of NARCAN and not knowing how to administer rescue breathing.
Proving this carelessness can be difficult when all the evidence sits behind the doors of a facility. However, a California Wrongful Death Drug Rehab Facility Lawyer can make immediate legal requests to preserve evidence like surveillance video, electronic monitoring logs, and medication tracking, so it can’t disappear.
Wrongful Death Support for Families After a Drug Court Death
Grieving families should be allowed time to mourn their loss, but they are often forced to worry over financial concerns. A senseless death can leave behind many bills and threaten a spouse and children’s futures in the years ahead without a loved one’s support.
Your attorney will be compiling a full list of the difficulties you and your family have endured. The list is submitted with your claim to make sure insurers know what they are expected to cover.
- Support for funeral costs
- Support to cover any leftover medical bills
- A refund on the money paid to a negligent program
- Support for the emotional trauma caused to loved ones
- Replacement of the income the deceased would have provided the family in the future
Contact Us if a California Rehab Facility Caused Your Loved One Harm.
Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to all families who lost a loved one participating in the Drug Court or Prop 36 programs. You may feel you’re the only one speaking up for a lost loved one. But now you don’t have to stand alone against a giant drug rehab network.
Call us today to set up a free case review. It’s confidential, and there’s no obligation. However, if you need legal representation, we don’t charge your family anything upfront. We are only paid if we win the case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check that a negligent facility must write for your family.
In these complex cases, a skilled attorney can often secure much more in a settlement for families than they could by handling a wrongful death case themselves.