How to Handle Nursing Home Cases in Rural Communities
Do justice and geography intersect in nursing home abuse cases? Tackling these cases in rural jurisdictions presents unique challenges, from limited resources to community biases that may influence the outcomes. Handling these cases requires not just legal knowledge, but also a deep understanding of local dynamics. In this week’s episode, nursing home abuse lawyer Rob Schenk welcomes guest Jeff Helms, Esq. to talk about the complexities and strategies for advocating for the elderly in less populated areas, where every case can set a powerful precedent.
Schenk:
Handling nursing home cases in rural jurisdictions. Stick around.
Hey out there. Welcome back to the nursing home abuse podcast. My name is Rob. I will be your host for this particular episode. Today we’re talking about the strategies the considerations that you may have in taking a nursing home case in a rural area. Now I practice in Georgia. Our guest attorney Jeff Helms also practices in Georgia and some in Florida, which you will tell from his accent.
But this, I think that the concepts that we talk about today are, you could carry these over to any rural jurisdiction in whatever state that you’re in. So even if you’re not in Georgia, stick around because I think that you’re going to
But like I said Jeff Helms attorney, Jeff Helms is going to be on the show to, to talk about this with us. And we had that conversation. All right.
And I always say there’s a drinking game for the nursing home abuse podcast. One of the, one of the triggers to drink is me mentioning who’s on the Mount Rushmore of nursing home trial attorneys in the state of Georgia. And this gentleman, Jeff Helms is definitely on it. Jeff Helms is a dedicated attorney at the Helms Law Firm in Homerville, Georgia, a double dog, Georgia.
From the university of Georgia, which he got his bachelor’s summa cum laude in 1983 and his JD from there in 1986, which makes him a double dog for, for everybody out there that’s outside of Georgia, or maybe that’s self explanatory. Jeff specializes in nursing home abuse, medical malpractice and personal injury cases.
He’s a fellow of the American college of trial lawyers and has been recognized as a Georgia super lawyer outside of work. Jeff is active in the United Methodist church. and supports local scouting. And we are so happy to have Jeff on the show with that. Jeff, welcome to the show.
Helms:
Great, Rob. Thanks. It’s an honor to be here.
I appreciate it. I’m looking forward to it.
Schenk:
No problem. I don’t know. Honor might be a stretch, but we’ll see what we can do.
Helms:
I, I am like a lawyer and I don’t because it’s Fridays down here.
Schenk:
That’s true. I, we, I am recording this on a Friday. But I don’t know. I always suit up. And then if just depending on what people are like, some people are in t shirts and they’re like, Rob, I can’t do this.
And I’ll just take my tie off or my jacket off, but we’re all good. Which is actually a good plug because you can actually watch this podcast on YouTube or our website. But anyway, most people,
Helms:
I’m sure my wife and mother will want to watch it.
What does ‘rural’ mean to you?
Schenk:
All hello there. Ms. Helms, Mrs. Helms. All right.
So I thought that you’d be a perfect person to talk to about this not that you don’t practice in the big city, but you have a lot of experience in what most of us would refer to as rural venues. But before we actually get into some of the nitty gritty, how, what does rural mean to you in the state of Georgia?
Helms:
Almost any place outside of the golden doughnut around Atlanta but even outside the golden doughnut now it’s it’s pretty well urbanized. Anything outside of Columbus, Macon, Savannah,
Schenk:
I see that’s rural.
Helms:
Yeah. And if it’s really rural, Homerville, my town my offices and where I call home is about 2, 700 people in the county, which is the fifth largest county in the state of Georgia size wise.
It has a population of about 7, 200 people. And then I live on a farm a mile off the main road down a county maintained road in a little town called DuPont. And by census, this last population was 247 people. And I represent the city of DuPont. It’s a municipal corporation.
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Schenk:
And so
Helms:
I’ve represented Most folks here and I represent that little city.
Schenk:
I was going to say I’ve lived in buildings in Atlanta that have more than 7, 200 people in it.
All right. Okay. Cause I just want to make it clear. So they’re different
Helms:
gradations of rural.
Schenk:
Exactly. And that’s why I wanted that to be the first question, because people that might be listening to this outside of Georgia, rural to them is all of Georgia. But it’s interesting. I’ve been here, I’ve been in Atlanta.
I don’t know. Now going on almost 20 years. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term golden donut. That’s the, this is a, it’s a learn something new this week. Golden donut being for people that aren’t familiar with Georgia geography, you have Atlanta, which is Fulton County, which I guess now from the last election, everybody knows Fulton County, but all the surrounding counties are basically a part of Atlanta, or at least, substantially populated with people that, that live and work in Atlanta and it’s more cosmopolitan, everything else outside is, A lot of farms is as Jeff said, so
Helms:
Let me even show you my age a little bit more.
Schenk:
Okay. What the
Helms:
golden doughnut is 285 because I’m old enough to remember when 285 when the construction was first completed. And it was called the golden doughnut because that’s where, the wealthy had eventually migrated out to. So the golden doughnut is 285.
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What are some considerations that you make in rural jurisdictions?
Schenk:
Exactly. There was one point in the mid nineties, I was a teenager and I, me and my girlfriend drove to Atlanta because that was the giant city.
That might as well have been New York city to us. Cause I grew up in, in rural quote unquote outside of Nashville in a little city called mountain Julia, Tennessee. Yeah. Yeah. And so we drove to Atlanta because like you could get do anything in Atlanta and we were too scared at first to go into Atlanta proper and we just took off on 285 and stop at the first light gas station and got, we did our risk assessment.
Are we really going to do this? And we did it. But 285 is where we were like, all right, if we could stop here and turn around if we want to anyway. So let’s do this. What are what are some of the considerations? If you have a case, you have a nursing home case, In any of the rural areas that we’re talking about, what are some of the considerations that you might have when you bring that case?
Helms:
As far as defendants go the business model now is for the local hospital authority, or if there’s a smaller hospital is to have an adjunct nursing home because that’s really the cash cow. So we shy away from the public authority hospitals that have the nursing home, like Baking County.
It’s a county of 24, 000 people. I don’t think I’ll ever sue that nursing home again, because it’s part of the, it’s part of the hospital authority, and it’s one of the few stand alone public hospital authorities, and the nursing home is a close part of it, so everybody knows you’re not just suing the nursing home, you’re suing the hospital authority and the taxpayers.
So those cases we shy away from and try to just look for the for profit chains. Mission health, bacon health, of course, Pruitt Ethica health scholarships, which we all know they build themselves as a non profit.
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Schenk:
They’re not run like one.
Helms:
They are carrying on a somewhat of a charade, I would say.
Schenk:
I guess a primary consideration is the idea that by suing the hospital authority, they’re not going to be as the day being the jury is not going to be as likely to see them as a villain. They can see them as a, as the lifeblood of the County. I guess that’s what you’re saying in that terms of that consideration.
Helms:
Yeah. I, it’s all local folks who work there. Everybody’s got kin folks. Cause in these smaller rural counties your medical complexes are the biggest employers. Now, if they’re for profit, that’s a different situation. But if it’s a an adjunct to the public hospital authority, then, that’s everybody’s to a large extent, the school system, hospital authority, those are bread and butter for a lot of folks.
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And so You just have to shy away from us, unless it’s something unusual.
Are there any differences in juries in rural jurisdictions?
Schenk:
What about the actual constituency itself? Like the veneer of the jury panel, like what are some of the considerations that you would have in that rural area versus you would in Fulton County or inside of the Golden Donut?
Helms:
Yeah. Gosh, every, you Every case is different and I learned a while back you can’t stereotype potential jurors because everybody carries a different life experience with them. They might come in with tattoos and a beard and look like a biker, but I’ve learned that some of those are some of the most hard right conservative type of people you can come across.
run into and vice versa. But just as a practical matter, you’re either looking for jurors who are not financially have some financial time that they depend upon to the public authority or the nursing home. And then you look for folks and it always happens in everything who have had bad experiences with the local hospital authority or the nursing home.
And you do get some really bad health care in some of these rural areas. Clinch County has got a great public hospital, doesn’t have a nursing home, but Bacon County does. Miller County is another example of how The nursing home and the administrator down there has turned little tiny rural Miller County into just a booming medical complex and people really get their bread and butter from Miller County.
So you approach that any cases against Miller County lightly. So two people who don’t have any financial ties to the hospital authority or the nursing home and number two, who’ve had unpleasant experiences with the local. Medical community.
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Schenk:
What about, and I only see this from an experience that I’ve had in the past as a new lawyer, what do you say to the idea of how you would present yourself in a rural venue versus in a city venue?
I know that when I was a young lawyer and I’ve been bald for a long time. I always shaved my head and I remember the attorney that I was working for at the time we were going to have a case in South Georgia, I guess it’s South Georgia, Albany, Georgia. And I’m not, I don’t even know if I’m saying that right.
I’m not a native Georgian. Albany, and just it’s spelled Albany, like Albany, New York, but it’s as Jeff is saying it, which I don’t know. We do that in Georgia. Like instead of the city of Martinez, it’s Martinez. Things like that. At any rate, and they were like, Rob, you need to grow, you need to grow your hair out, which I mean I’m, I can’t on some of my head, I would have the horseshoe, but what do you want me to do?
And that’s because I would look like a rough neck or like a, I don’t know. And they were telling me about which suits I need to wear and things like that. So can you speak to that? And on the other hand, there’s some lawyers that, that wouldn’t change how they behave in one iota.
Yeah.
Helms:
I, and I think your word behave is the key term, television, the internet, YouTube, Instagram reels. I think people have become accustomed to how other people look and like you with a shaved head or Mike Prieto. I wouldn’t think twice about even, I wouldn’t even have thought about that really.
If you’re a co counsel, I wouldn’t even thought about it. It’s how you behave in the more rural areas. They don’t, they expect you to be more polite, courteous, even if you don’t mean it, it’s just a veneer, but to carry on a more civilized tone than you would in some of the more urban areas. We’re so close to Florida, I’ve done a lot of work down in Florida.
It’s like a war zone. You get south of Gainesville, Florida, the courtrooms are like war zone.
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Schenk:
Oh, wow.
Helms:
And, it’s just crazy. So whether you’re in Atlanta or South Georgia, Albany, where they have pecan trees it’s how you behave. And if you’re respectful to the juror, it’s respectful to the judge.
And they notice, are you respectful to the bailiffs? Are you respectful to the clerk, to the court reporter? Just good manners is all I can say, no matter where you are. And but I have to do, I am conscious of my accent because it’s just after 38 years of practicing law in South Georgia I can go to South Florida or I can go even to, Atlanta and I can open my mouth and start talking to people.
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What did you just say? Janet Black, the expert.
Schenk:
Yes.
Helms:
So I’ve never met her in person, but she’s worked on several cases, but I saw her out in Denver. And so I walked up to her. I could see who she was. And I said, Hey, I want to introduce myself. She says, I know who you are. I can tell who you are by your accent.
Schenk:
Yeah, you and Casey both, Casey your associate attorney, like you have, she’s been on the show before too. You have beautiful accents, that South Georgia.
Helms:
And I wear nice suits wherever I go. I think the jury expects you, even in a rural area. They want you to look nice. They want you to look professional.
They want you to represent your client. And I do that in Atlanta, wherever I go. So I don’t overdo it. Somebody like Don Keenan, can be very flashy, but that’s just him, but that’s not me.
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Schenk:
And I guess that’s, I guess that’s what you’re saying is that if you’re your authentic self, whether you’re, from the Bronx or from, the, if you’re Jerry Spence from Wyoming and you wear whatever the jackets with the cowboy jackets with the fringes, as long as you’re being you, I guess it’s okay.
Helms:
Let me give you a great example just real quick. Gerald Gallet, the medical examiner for Dekalb County. He’s as Yankee and either Brooklyn or New Jersey as they come. He doesn’t look good. He doesn’t look like South Georgians, but he’s just plain spoken. He’s funny. He’s garrulous. He’s nice. And I’ve used him in South Georgia a lot in jurors.
They love him, so it’s whether or not it’s authentic to you is what matters the most.
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Are there any particual themes are arguments that you make in rural jurisdictions?
Schenk:
That’s true. What about, and this might be a little bit like too broad but what about in general, the arguments that you might make? In a rural town. So for example, like it might be that the concept of accountability and you’re paying for this service and you should receive something might be a, you might more, you might be more likely to make that argument versus going towards the feeling of this shouldn’t have happened.
This is a bad thing. These type of things. Is there, do you find that there’s a, an argument or a case theme or a theory that maybe plays better to the rural audience.
Helms:
Again, I’m not really, I think it cuts across all spectrums of geography. It’s that how you treat your loved ones in a nursing home is pretty much the same in noon in Georgia or Douglasville, Portland, as it is in Thomasville, or Moultrie or Valdosta.
It’s and I’m talking about in the context of nursing homes mainly so that you have a great responsibility if you’re going to take these people in and take either taxpayer money or private pay, you got to take care of. And that’s just what we all expect. And just about everybody on the jury has a loved one who is in that, in some part of the spectrum between, independent living to memory care lockdown or hospice, somewhere along that.
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They’ve got a loved one that’s there. And so it resonates. Yeah. Until you’ve been there, I want my loved one to be treated with civility and respect and dignity. So again, it’s, uh, it’s it’s different in criminal cases. I don’t do any more criminal cases. But what you always look for in criminal cases, as Bobby Lee Cook, the famous criminal defense attorney, used to say when he would go in and defend a murder trial, he said he’d go around the community and he practiced a lot in rural areas.
He would try to find out, and his question was did the son of a bitch deserve to be killed? And if so, did the right person do it? Still a violent society down here in rural Georgia and everybody’s got a gun.
Do you recommend having local counsel in rural jurisdictions?
Schenk:
What do you say to the idea of local council? So if you’re an attorney in Atlanta and you’ve got a case in Albany does it matter? If we’re talking about authenticity, we’re talking about manners, if you have those things, what’s your take on that?
Should we still hire somebody to, to that’s local?
Helms:
I absolutely. I’m a firm believer in that. We always. Almost always have local counsel, unless it’s an area like Coffee County, Bacon County, Ware County, Lowndes County. I always feel like I’m local, and I practically am, because a lot of folks know of my firm, or know my wife.
She’s been a prosecutor in this area forever. But any other like Chatham County, I wouldn’t. dream of going to some counties, a lot of counties, without local council. I think it’s very important. They know the courthouse staff, they know the clerk, they know the bailiffs, they know the judge’s secretary.
It’s just it’s very important to have local council. And and somebody there that the jurors may know much better than you. I’ve seen some defense attorneys come in down to South Georgia without defense local counseling, and it’d just be a disaster for them, which I’m always happy for that to happen.
So no I, and Jim Butler is one of the best attorneys in Georgia. He’ll, he preaches that all the time. Don’t be foolish. Don’t be greedy. Get local counseling. It’s, it helps your case. It helps you. prepare the case. It helps you in so many different facets. I’m a firm believer in local council.
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Schenk:
Yeah, at least in, in in Vaudeer, we when we introduce ourselves, it’s oh, and the defense, they’re all the way from New York City or they’re all the way from, Atlanta.
And that does, I think, in some instances that has an effect that you’re not from the place.
Helms:
Yeah, you ain’t from around here. That’s what
Schenk:
Guess we’re learning today, Jeff, that there’s not much difference between a rural case and an urban case, but any other considerations that you might have on this that we haven’t talked about?
Helms:
I, where I do think there is a huge difference between urban and rural deals with verdict size.
Helms:
There’s just, you just can’t get around it. You see these verdicts coming out of the cab county, Gwinnett county. Fulton County. You rarely, if ever, see those kind of verdicts in a rural county, although you do, but they’re the outliers they really are, unless you have some truly remarkable or important factors, such as in a death case, a tremendously great family or family member who was a very productive member of society.
I think rural counties do jurors do respond to that, but it’s got to be an unusual case. And that’s where you see, like in Franklin County, Dennis Cathy, who’s been out at a long time, and his son, they got a 10 million verdict in a emergency room case. But I know Dennis pretty well. I spoke to him, and it had some unusual facts in that case that really made the jury mad. But those are your outlines.
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Schenk:
Right.
Helms:
For the most part, verdicts are much more conservative. outside of your more urban area. Bibb County is a good area. It’s got the highest per capita population of union workers of any place in the state, which I didn’t know that until a few years back. Chatham County is a very unusual place, good place. Daugherty County is a great venue because Tommy Malone grew up there and softened up the local populace to personal injury cases.
Schenk:
Right.
Helms:
And then Lowndes County in Valdosta is turned out to be a very good venue. But you get outside of those counties and then you’re it can be tough slogging.
You’ve got to have good clients. Bad liability and heat in the case to get the bigger verdict in a rural county. Whereas you go to the urban areas, then people are just used to big numbers.
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Schenk:
I guess in summation that the golden duck, the golden donut has the sprinkles. And there are no sprinkles outside of that.
For the most part. It’s be very rare that you get a sprinkle. It’s, the second thing is that Georgia has what, 200 counties? How many counties does Georgia have? 59. 59 counties. That’s right. Yeah. Anyway.
Helms:
And a bunch of little cities. Yeah.
Schenk:
Yeah, exactly.
Helms:
And they’re all different, they’re, every county is so different from the other county.
Schenk:
And that’s the, that’s a, I don’t know if it’s a unique to Georgia. It’s, there are probably several states that are like this, but you go from mountains, the mountains to, just the city to, to the coast. There’s so much, there’s so many different types of people and different. Makeups of these counties. So anyway Jeff, I really appreciate you coming on today and talking to us and sharing your knowledge with us.
Helms:
Rob, it’s been a pleasure. It’s always a pleasure to work with you and see you professionally at meetings. Sorry you didn’t make it to Denver, but look forward to our paths crossing again.
Guest Info: