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 Felicia Curran
Admissions:
Areas of Focus:
Education:
Biography: For nearly twenty years, Felicia Curran’s practice has focused on personal injury, wrongful death and employment litigation. Her ambition in becoming a lawyer was to represent consumers and employees in lawsuits against big corporations and insurance companies. Within the last ten years, she has focused on elder and dependent adult abuse and nursing home litigation, medical malpractice, and other forms of professional negligence. Felicia became interested in elder abuse issues after her mother spent time in a skilled nursing facility, and she saw first hand how staff inattention compromised the care of elderly patients. She has represented elderly and disabled adults and their families in connection with many types of lawsuits under the Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Act, including lawsuits where the abuse resulted in death, loss of limb, pressure ulcers, falls, malnutrition, aspiration, dehydration, improper use of restraints, medication errors, physical and mental abuse, and reckless delays, denial and access to medical treatment for elderly and disabled patients. Another focus of Felicia’s practice is medical malpractice and therapist abuse. She has represented clients in lawsuits or arbitrations against negligent medical care providers (hospitals, physicians, physical therapists, registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, home health agencies, visiting nurses agencies). She also represents clients who have been victimized or abused by their therapist or psychiatrist. Felicia has represented numerous employees in employment-related lawsuits for sexual harassment, discrimination, hostile work environment and wrongful termination. Felicia also has served as a legal advisor to Oakland Unified School District, where she advised the school district on lawsuits involving employment issues, negligent supervision of children, dangerous conditions of public property and sexual harassment of students by teachers. Felicia writes about elder and dependent adult issues in the Boxer & Gerson, LLP blog, www.elderadvocacyblog.com. Case Highlights: Judgment by default in the amount of $3,279,463 in an elder abuse case on behalf of an elderly woman and her daughter against a San Pablo nursing home. The judgment was entered by a judge after an evidentiary hearing in which Felicia presented evidence of how the elderly woman had suffered when the nursing home repeatedly neglected her, causing her to develop a Stage 4 bedsore that covered her buttocks. The bedsore required multiple surgeries to save the elderly woman’s life. As a result of the nursing home’s neglect, the elderly woman is bed-bound for the rest of her life. Felicia also presented evidence that entitled the daughter to a damage award for her own emotional distress that was based on gross acts of mistreatment of her mother she observed during visits to the nursing home. Jury Verdict/Equitable Relief Award In the Amount of $1,025,000. In Meriola Gotthardt v. National Railroad Passenger Corp. (AMTRAK) 191 F.3d 1148 (9th Cir. 1999), Felicia and her co-counsel obtained a combined jury verdict/equitable relief award after jury trial for the female locomotive engineer in the amount of $1,025,000. The court also ordered AMTRAK to pay an additional award for the engineer’s attorney fees. The Gotthardt case was the first appellate decision in this Circuit holding that the damage cap of 42 U.S.C. Section 1981a(b)(3) does not apply to an employee’s claims for lost future wages ("front pay") under the federal anti-discrimination law, Title VII. This issue was later resolved on a nationwide basis in 2001, by the U.S. Supreme Court, in Pollard v. E.I. du Pont (2001) 532 U.S. 843, once again in the plaintiff’s favor. Settlement in the amount of $1,225,000 on behalf of two women employees of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A supervisor of the correctional institution where the women worked had subjected them to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment for more than nine months. During the pre-trial work-up of the case, the employer was forced to admit that it had no record of the sexually harassing supervisor ever having taken sexual harassment training and that the supervisor was responsible for monitoring his own sexual harassment training (the fox guarding the chicken house). This is one of the largest reported settlements the Department of Corrections has paid in a sexual harassment lawsuit for harassment by a single supervisor. Settlement in the amount of $900,000 pre-trial settlement in a therapist abuse case on behalf of a young woman who was victimized by her therapist. The therapist used the transference phenomenon to exploit her professional relationship with the young woman to induce the woman to have sexual relations with her. The young woman was severely traumatized by the therapist’s abuse, and the settlement provided funds for the medical care and therapy the young woman needed to recover from the abuse. Settlement in the amount of $850,000 for wrongful death and neglect of a dependent adult who became septic at long term care home. A forty-five-year-old man became physically disabled from multiple sclerosis, and went to live at a long term care facility. He was totally dependent on others for basic activities such as toileting, bathing, turning in bed, and getting in and out of bed. He was often left for hours sitting in wet diapers, causing him to develop chronic urinary tract infections. The facility’s neglect of his needs caused him to become depressed and withdrawn, causing him to refuse to eat, resulting in clinical malnourishment and dehydration. He passed away after become septic, caused by the urinary tract infections. Felicia obtained a settlement on behalf of the family by presenting evidence that the long term care facility caused the man’s death by its repeated neglect of his medical and psychological needs, and that the managers of the facility were aware of the neglect but did nothing. Settlement in the amount of $800,000 on behalf of an elderly disabled woman against physicians and skilled nursing facility. An elderly disabled woman in her seventies developed decubitus ulcers on her hips and buttocks during a period of immobility following a major surgery. The ulcers could have been prevented if she had been turned regularly in the hospital. Her physicians cut corners, and delayed providing her medically necessary treatment, equipment, and referrals to specialists, causing the ulcers to become infected, which in turn infected her bones, ultimately requiring hip resection surgery. The neglect permanently altered the quality of her life and cut short her remaining years. The physicians argued that the decubitus ulcers were caused by the woman’s pre-existing disabilities, and not by any neglect. The case settled after Felicia presented evidence that the physicians’ neglect had caused her injuries, and which established the amount of the woman’s monetary losses. Settlement in the amount of $750,000 for wrongful death and neglect of an elderly woman who died of aspiration. An elderly woman went to live at a long term care facility. The staff of the nursing home dropped the woman, causing her to fracture her hip. They then ignored her complaints of hip pain for weeks. The elderly woman became depressed from the pain and neglect, and began to refuse to eat, which severely affected her well-being and contributed to her deterioration. She was finally seen by a physician when her daughter had her examined by a physician visiting the facility. She was operated on for repair of the hip, but then aspirated while recovering from the surgery in the hospital. Felicia established that the nursing home and physicians had liability for his death by showing medical evidence that the aspiration was brought out by the woman’s severe malnutrition, and that she had stopped eating by reason of a depression brought on by the facility’s neglect. Published Cases: Meriola Gotthardt v. National Railroad Passenger Corp. (AMTRAK) 191 F.3d 1148 (9th Cir. 1999) United States v. $84,740 (9th Cir. 1990) 900 F.2d 1402. Articles "Litigating Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Cases After Delaney v. Baker" in California Civil Litigation Reporter (Vol. 28:1) December 2006. “When Are Arbitration Agreements In Nursing Home Admissions Contracts Enforceable? Recent Cases From the Courts of Appeal” in California Civil Litigation Reporter (Vol. 29:3) June 2007. Presentations: Felicia was one of the presenters at the Third Annual Legal Assistance for Seniors Elder Abuse Conference in Oakland, California, where she made a presentation on "Elder Abuse and Neglect in Long Term Care Settings" with Roberta Block, M.S., R.N. Memberships:
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