Best Nursing Home Abuse Law Firms in Illinois (2026)
In Illinois, nursing home abuse litigation is not a subset of general personal injury law. This type of litigation arises from regulated facilities, layered corporate ownership, disputed medical records, and institutional defendants built to resist accountability.
The following Illinois nursing home abuse law firms were assessed based on documented outcomes, nursing home–specific litigation experience, familiarity with institutional defendants, and consistency of practice focus.
Quick Summary of Top Nursing Home Abuse Law Firms in Illinois
Most families do not begin by comparing law firms, but by trying to understand how an injury occurred, why records are missing or contradictory, and why the facility’s explanation keeps changing. Only after those gaps appear does firm selection matter.
The firms below are grouped by how they respond once institutional defenses emerge in nursing home abuse litigation.
| Illinois Law Firm | Recommended for |
| Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC | High-severity nursing home abuse such as documented pressure injuries, sepsis, choking, systemic neglect, or wrongful death. |
| Levin & Perconti | Nursing home abuse matters headed toward trial, with regulatory violations, medication errors, or repeated care failures. |
| Romanucci & Blandin | Catastrophic injury or wrongful death against nursing home operators when the claim overlaps with broader institutional negligence or corporate misconduct. |
| Schwartz Injury Law | Medically complex nursing home abuse litigation (advanced pressure ulcers, infections, or sepsis). |
| The Rooth Law Firm | Nursing home neglect or wrongful death cases handled inside a broader personal injury practice for families seeking long-established Illinois trial counsel. |
| Willens & Baez | Elder abuse and wrongful death incidents shaped by insurer positioning, reserve strategy, and early settlement leverage |
| Zneimer & Zneimer P.C. | Straightforward nursing home abuse matters that include supervision failures or unsafe conditions. |
| Karlin Fleisher & Falkenberg | Individual nursing home neglect or abuse claims requiring hands-on attorney involvement. |
| Fotopoulos Law Office | Local or suburban Illinois nursing home neglect tied to understaffing or preventable injuries. |
| Briskman Briskman & Greenberg | General PI clients also pursuing elder abuse claims |
When a resident is injured inside an Illinois nursing home, families are left in the dark as to what led to it. Incomplete medical records, delayed incident reports, and staff turnover make timelines difficult to reconstruct.
Illinois regulates long-term care facilities through state and federal standards, but in many instances, enforcement follows serious harm. Any form of deficiency on the part of the nursing home is only documented once the injury happens, and accountability leads to finger-pointing.
Liability is established through patterns (understaffing, ignored care plans, delayed treatment, and repeated violations) instead of one-time errors. Early documentation, regulatory history, and medical chronology determine whether a facility can be held accountable.
How These Firms Were Selected
The firms were chosen based on documented results, overall experience, and sustained practice focus in contested Illinois nursing home abuse litigation.
Documented case results
Verdicts and settlements involving pressure injuries, sepsis, choking, falls, and wrongful death show how a firm establishes liability despite medical causation disputes and institutional defenses.
Institutional litigation experience
Nursing home operators rely on corporate policies, regulatory compliance arguments, and fragmented responsibility. Firms with experience litigating against facilities, management companies, and insurers are better positioned to anticipate and counter these defenses.
Consistency of practice focus
Firms that regularly handle nursing home abuse develop working familiarity with medical records, staffing models, regulatory histories, and requirements that episodic practitioners lack.
Selection prioritized outcomes, institutional litigation experience, and sustained nursing home practice, not awards or marketing visibility. Unlike rankings that rely primarily on peer nominations or directory scoring, this evaluation focused on how firms perform once regulatory defenses, causation disputes, and institutional resistance actually appear.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC – Ranked #1 for Nursing Home Abuse Cases in Illinois
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC sits at #1 based on documented results in contested Illinois nursing home abuse cases and a sustained practice focal point on institutional neglect and wrongful death, with disputes over causation or liability.
- The firm reports more than $450 million recovered across injury and abuse, including multiple seven-figure nursing home verdicts and settlements.
- Publicly reported outcomes include a $12.8 million verdict tied to untreated pressure injuries leading to death, plus recoveries involving bedsores and sepsis, choking deaths tied to ignored diet orders, and catastrophic falls.
Facilities disputed causation, minimized staffing failures, or shifted responsibility across ownership and insurers, yet liability was still established. Its nursing home litigation history goes beyond isolated incidents and includes patterns of neglect: pressure ulcers, infections, aspiration, supervision failures, and even delayed emergency response.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers is led by Jonathan Rosenfeld, who has practiced personal injury law for more than 25 years. The firm maintains a documented record of nursing home abuse outcomes and litigates them as a core practice area.
The following merits support the firm’s public record, but are secondary to documented case outcomes:
- Superb 10.0 Avvo attorney profile for Jonathan Rosenfeld
- Top Rated Personal Injury Attorney at Super Lawyers
- A+ Rated by BBB
Who is Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC For?
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC is best for high-severity nursing home abuse litigation, such as serious medical harm or death. The firm carefully looks out for documentation lapses, regulatory violations, and when facilities are expected to contest liability aggressively.
For low-damage claims with little dispute, a smaller practice may be a better fit.
Levin & Perconti
Levin & Perconti is built for trial pressure. The Chicago-based firm has a long history in medical malpractice and institutional negligence litigation, including one of the largest publicly reported Illinois nursing home verdicts arising from negligent resident care.
Clients work with this firm where regulatory violations, medication errors, or repeated care failures create trial exposure for the facility. Nursing home abuse is not its sole concern, but the firm’s willingness to litigate through verdicts can influence settlement posture especially if the facility resists early resolution.
Romanucci & Blandin
Romanucci & Blandin takes on nursing home injuries tied to ownership-level decisions and systemic institutional failures. While nursing home litigation is not its primary niche, its resources and trial capacity can be effective in high-exposure litigation.
Recommended for catastrophic injury or wrongful death claims tied to systemic conduct beyond a single isolated failure.
Schwartz Injury Law
Schwartz Injury Law concentrates heavily on nursing home abuse and neglect litigation, with particular emphasis on the medically complex. The firm’s approach involves early medical record analysis and professional input on advanced pressure ulcers, infections, and sepsis.
Its narrower scale limits statewide visibility, but they do show sustained familiarity with clinical documentation and causation issues common in serious neglect proceedings. Work with them if liability turns on complex medical causation supported by early expert review.
The Rooth Law Firm
The Rooth Law Firm brings decades of Illinois trial experience to nursing home neglect and wrongful death, handled within the firm’s broader serious-injury practice and backed by long-running Illinois trial work.
They are a strong fit for families who prefer established Illinois trial counsel for nursing home neglect handled within a general PI framework.
Willens & Baez
Willens & Baez approaches nursing home abuse with insight informed by prior insurance defense experience. That background informs how the firm evaluates liability exposure, reserves, and settlement thresholds in elder abuse and wrongful death claims. The practice runs lean, with direct attention on elder abuse and wrongful death files, and is recommended for issues shaped by insurer positioning, reserve strategy, and settlement leverage.
Zneimer & Zneimer P.C.
Zneimer & Zneimer P.C. has represented injured Illinois clients for decades and is known for accessible counsel. Their nursing home matters focus on supervision failures, unsafe conditions, and preventable injuries.
Public verdict disclosures are limited, but the firm offers accessible representation for families navigating straightforward abuse or neglect claims. The firm works well with lower-complexity nursing home abuse.
Karlin Fleisher & Falkenberg
Direct attorney involvement is the defining feature of Karlin Fleisher & Falkenberg’s practice. The small firm handles nursing home abuse with limited caseloads and individualized oversight. Its scale limits large institutional reach, but its hands-on model can matter in individual neglect or abuse claims.
Karlin Fleisher & Falkenberg is the right choice when personal attorney involvement is preferred over large-firm staffing structures.
Fotopoulos Law Office
Fotopoulos Law Office serves clients in suburban Illinois, handling nursing home neglect alongside other personal injury incidents. The firm routinely handles nursing home matters tied to understaffing, supervision failures, and preventable injuries in local facilities. The firm’s reach is regional with limited high-value verdict exposure.
The firm is a good recommendation for local or suburban nursing home neglect and if community familiarity is relevant.
Briskman Briskman & Greenberg
Briskman Briskman & Greenberg handles nursing home abuse matters within a broad personal injury docket spanning multiple injury categories, including transportation accidents and premises liability claims. Its scale supports steady case handling across multiple injury categories, but it does not emphasize institutional nursing home neglect as a core specialty.
Briskman Briskman & Greenberg is ideal for general personal injury clients pursuing elder abuse claims for unsafe conditions or straightforward negligence.
Common Reasons Families Seek a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
Families rarely contact a lawyer after a single unexplained incident. Patterns of neglect in nursing homes often become visible only after harm has already occurred. Early warning signs are dismissed internally, while documentation gaps widen over time.
Common triggers:
- Advanced pressure ulcers or infected bedsores
- Repeated falls or unexplained fractures
- Sepsis or untreated infections
- Choking or aspiration incidents tied to ignored diet orders
- Malnutrition or dehydration
- Medication errors or missed doses
- Sexual or physical abuse by staff or other residents
- Sudden decline following staffing changes or facility transitions
Pressure injuries coincide with missed repositioning, poor nutrition, and delayed treatment. Falls frequently point to understaffing or inadequate supervision. By the time families are notified, records may already be incomplete or retroactively corrected.
Because nursing homes are regulated after the injury happens and not before, timing is critical. Preserving medical records, staffing logs, care plans, and regulatory histories early can determine whether patterns of neglect are provable or defensible.
How to Choose the Right Nursing Home Abuse Law Firm in Illinois
Choosing a nursing home abuse lawyer in Illinois requires evaluating factors that do not apply to most injuries. Establishing liability relies on regulatory records, medical documentation, and institutional conduct, not eyewitness accounts or accident reconstruction.
- Start with nursing home–specific experience. Effective nursing home abuse firms understand how to obtain and analyze care plans, staffing logs, incident reports, and prior deficiency citations. They also know how facilities document events after the fact and where records are most likely to be incomplete or inconsistent.
- Consider regulatory familiarity. Illinois nursing homes are subject to oversight by the Illinois Department of Public Health and federal CMS standards. Well-experienced lawyers know how to use survey histories, complaint investigations, and repeated violations to establish patterns of neglect.
- Ownership structure. Many Illinois facilities are operated through layered corporate entities. Firms experienced in institutional litigation are better positioned to identify management companies, parent organizations, and insurers that influence staffing decisions and care policies.
- Finally, assess litigation posture, not marketing claims. Nursing home defendants contest causation and minimize damages. Firms that regularly litigate nursing home abuse can anticipate delay tactics, retain appropriate medical experts, and maintain leverage through discovery and trial preparation.
Final Consideration
Nursing home abuse matters are not litigated on equal footing. Facilities are supported by corporate ownership structures, insurers, and regulatory systems that respond only after serious harm occurs. This leaves families reconstructing events from incomplete or disputed records.
For severe injury, wrongful death, or documented patterns of neglect, experience with institutional defendants is more important than firm size, marketing visibility, or brand recognition.
All content undergoes a thorough legal review by our experienced attorneys.
Jonathan Rosenfeld is a leading Chicago nursing home injury lawyer with 25 years of experience focused on elder abuse litigation. Recognized for his dedication, he has received recogn