Legal Accountability for Failure to Prevent Suicide
Proper medical treatment can dramatically shift the outcome of a mental health crisis, offering a lifeline in much the same way that timely intervention treats a physical illness like a heart attack or stroke. Evidence shows that appropriate medical treatment is highly effective; in fact, nine out of ten individuals who receive the right care during a suicidal crisis do not go on to die by suicide later in life.
At Feldman Shepherd, our attorneys take on cases where doctors, nurses, therapists, psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals, and other medical facilities and practitioners failed to meet the standard of care for a patient who is at risk for suicide. These failures include:
- Failure to perform a proper suicide-risk assessment
- Failure to formulate and implement an appropriate treatment plan
- Failure to prescribe appropriate medication at the proper dosage
- Failure to monitor and reassess the patient’s psychiatric status and response to treatment and modify the treatment plan as needed
- Failure to refer the patient to an appropriate mental health professional
We also represent families who have lost loved ones to suicide when powerful institutions—including universities, correctional facilities, juvenile detention centers, and foster care and group homes—ignored signs of a mental health crisis, failed to adequately respond to them, or lacked the resources and training to effectively respond.
Major Victories in Preventable Suicide Cases
Among our notable cases, attorneys Mark W. Tanner and Reginald L. Streater secured a confidential settlement for a university student who died by suicide after reaching out for help with his mental health crisis by contacting the heavily advertised online therapy provider, Better Help. Despite expressed written complaints of suicidal ideation provided by the student at the initial point of contact, these concerns were never acknowledged, addressed, or treated in any way by the assigned therapist. The patient was never assessed for his suicide risk. Tragically, after several therapy sessions that failed to address his expressed suicidal ideation or the severity of his condition, this young man took his own life.
Attorney Alan M. Feldman achieved a confidential settlement for the family of a college student who was drawn into a sexual affair by a professor, causing such trauma that the student ended his life. In addition to a significant financial settlement, Feldman negotiated other settlement terms that included a campus hotline for sexual abuse grievances, creation of a dedicated endowment for a student survivor of abuse, a scholarship for a family member, and other changes to the school’s policy for responding to complaints of sexual misconduct.
Attorneys Carol Nelson Shepherd, Patricia M. Giordano, and Andrew K. Mitnick secured a confidential settlement for the parents of a college student who repeatedly offered complaints of suicidal ideation without adequate response.
