Orange County Sober Living Homes are responsible for the safety of the patients they take in.
When a vulnerable loved one is allowed to take their own life or fatally overdose, you can seek justice and wrongful death support.
You and your family are empowered to demand help with an uncertain future. That means assistance with funeral costs, expensive leftover medical bills, and replacing a loved one’s income that can no longer help support the family.
When Your Family Can Benefit from a Lawyer’s Help
If your loved one is seriously hurt or tragically dies while in the care of a Sober Living Home, it’s wise to speak to a skilled attorney.
Families have the right to ask questions and file lawsuits, and are often able to secure support to protect their futures. However, the operators of Orange County Sober Living Homes can also afford teams of lawyers. They’ll look to erase liability. They’ll try to blame your loved one or try to keep the fault on an unpreventable “medical emergency.”
These are common tactics, but with the help of an attorney’s investigation and the evidence collected, these unfair strategies can be beaten. You don’t have to have a lawyer to file a claim, but in these high-value cases, a California Rehab Facility Wrongful Death Lawyer can often secure much more for families than they could win themselves.
Sober Living Homes and Licensing
Most Sober Living Homes, also known as recovery residences, aren’t required to apply for licensing with California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).
Sober Living Homes generally don’t offer medical services, as a detox center would. They generally don’t offer professional counseling, as a higher-level drug rehab facility would provide access to.
These group homes may also submit to private certification, such as CARF accreditation, as a way to prove their adherence to high medical standards.
See: More on How Sober Living Homes are Regulated
Rehab Riviera and Sober Living Home Regulation
The rules and regulations are key in Orange County because it’s a place that has a reputation for the many drug rehab businesses opening their doors here. Local media, like the Orange County Register and area TV stations, refer to Orange County’s coastal cities as the “Rehab Riviera.”
See: The history of the Rehab Riviera in Orange County
It’s a swanky nickname for the region that calls to mind the luxurious string of resorts along the Mediterranean coast in France and Italy. Some of the rehabs along the Orange County coastline, such as Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, are known as Luxury Rehabs. These are facilities that charge a lot of money and provide deluxe accommodations (like a resort).
They also sometimes get in trouble for promising too much or providing services they aren’t allowed to offer.
Orange County is home to many licensed drug treatment centers and unlicensed sober living homes.
There’s been an explosion of services and businesses, and the phenomenon has many cities fighting to control where these facilities can open their doors.
Sober Living Homes are subject to county and city ordinances. Orange County has imposed more recent restrictions on how these group homes are operated in unincorporated areas.
These are some of the County Ordinance rules that govern recovery residents:
- Orange County Sober Living Homes with six residents or fewer can be located in single-family home communities
- Homes with seven residents or more would only be allowed in certain zones with approval
- There must be a house manager on the grounds 24 hours a day
- Sober living homes can’t be opened within 650 ft of another group home or drug rehab facility
- Cannot provide medical services or any other services that must be licensed.
- Residents must not use drugs or alcohol
- Residents must comply with sex-offender registration laws
The ordinances largely follow laws on the books in Costa Mesa, partly found in the Municipal Code § 9-370 – § 9-378.
Huntington Beach ordinances are similar to the county restrictions. Although in Huntington Beach, recovery residences must be at least 1,000 feet from other rehab facilities and group homes. You can see the city’s rules here.
Anaheim requires all home operators to seek valid permits and registration. Sober Living Homes must be 800 feet from other such residential providers.
Newport Beach ordinances allow Sober Living Homes of 6 residents or fewer to exist in single-family communities. Homes with 7 residents or more can only occupy mixed-family neighborhoods.
Dana Point largely regulates Sober Living Homes as normal residences unless the homes are found to provide licensable services. The Dana Point Code of Ordinances.
See: How many drug rehabs are there in Orange County?
Who Is Liable for an Overdose Death at a Sober Living Home?
Sober living homes take in vulnerable residents who may be fresh out of a detox center. A recovery residence agrees to supply a drug-free, monitored environment with peer support from other roommates.
The homes owe all residents a “duty of care” and the fulfillment of any promises made on the home’s website or made face-to-face to potential residents and family members. They accept money from families and residents.
The operators of these homes are liable when their house managers are negligent in their monitoring duties and in their response to emergencies.
These are just a few of the types of owners that can bear blame for a sober living home accident:
- A landlord
- A single owner who owns and lives in the house
- A group of peers who have opened a home
- A company or corporation
- A real estate business
- An investment firm
- A non-profit organization (perhaps a church)
Evidence of a Recovery Residence’s Negligence
Group homes are liable when a patient is allowed to harm themselves, free from surveillance. Or when a patient is allowed to overdose and die because no one took action to call for help.
These are some other reasons sober living home owners may be found to blame:
- A suicide that occurs while a resident is left alone
- A failure to keep drugs out of a recovery home
- Allowing a resident to overdose
- A failure to respond with due care to an overdosing patient (e.g., calling 911, administering NARCAN)
- A premises liability accident such as a slip-and-fall on a stairway or a deck collapse (unsafe structure)
- A recovery residence that provides services they aren’t qualified to offer (the difference from a licensed facility)
Cities like Dana Point continue to sue Sober Living Homes because they are providing unsafe environments for patients and neighbors. These lapses mean the owners can be held liable if a patient comes to harm.
An experienced California Rehab Facility Wrongful Death Lawyer can help families collect evidence of negligence and file a lawsuit backed with evidence.
Support Available for Families After a Sober Living Death
A skilled attorney doesn’t back down from large healthcare networks or their corporate lawyers. A lawyer files your family’s claim and includes all of the hardships that the owner and their insurers are expected to cover.
The support must cover the family’s immediate damages and the difficulties that will arise in the years ahead:
Wrongful Death Support
- Burial and memorial service costs
- Reimbursement for the income a victim would have supported the family with in the future
- Support for a loss of love and guidance
- Support for lost special life moments, such as holiday gatherings, weddings, and the birth of children and grandchildren
- Support for a loss of companionship for parents who lose a teenager at a juvenile group home
Survival Action Support (This is support for the victim’s hardships endured before they passed on)
- The patient’s ambulance fees and hospital bills left behind
- Reimbursement for any property damage the patient suffered
- Replacement of the income a patient lost while forced to miss even more time at work
Contact Us if Your Loved One Was Hurt at a Sober Living Home.
Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to victims and their families after injury or death at an Orange County sober living home. We can also help families gain support even if an at-fault sober living business was shut down after an accident.
Call us today or fill out a free case review form.
If you need our help, we are there, even if you don’t have any money. We only get paid if we win your case for your family. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check a negligent facility must write.