02 Jul Do Not Sign Arbitration Agreements with Nursing Homes or Assisted Living Facilities. They Can’t Deny Admission to Your Loved Ones For Refusing to Do So.
As we have long advised on this webpage, in Colorado, it is illegal for health care facilities to condition the admission of your loved ones on them or their representatives signing arbitration agreements. They cannot refuse to admit a resident because the resident will not sign an arbitration agreement or have their representatives sign one for them. This is explicitly stated in Colorado law.
What Happens If You Sign a Nursing Home Arbitration Agreement?
Signing an arbitration agreement means that if your loved ones are hurt or killed, the facilities can keep you from going to court, where juries are allowed to decide what to do. Signing an arbitration agreement means that any claim arising from abuse or neglect or even ordinary negligence will be decided by a lawyer playing the role of a judge. You have to pay for this privilege, usually, and split the costs with the facility, which are often thousands of dollars a day.
Experience teaches that there is nothing good for any potential case by putting it behind closed doors, out of the public eye, in front of a lawyer rather than a jury. The only reason for these agreements is to protect facilities from their wrongdoing and to help bury and hide what they have done.
We fully understand that you are under pressure to sign them. They want them signed, but they also know they cannot refuse to admit a resident because they won’t sign.
Don’t sign these pernicious agreements.
Untoward things happen to long-term care residents far too often. You and your family, and your mother or father or other loved one, want and deserve their rights. Do not confer such an unnecessary advantage on the care facilities by signing arbitration agreements
We have been fighting arbitration agreements for decades when people sign them, and we have had considerable success in the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Recent decisions build on earlier cases we did in the past.
Still, often homes will ask a medical POA to sign an arbitration agreement. They actually can’t do so legally because the decision to arbitrate is a legal one, not a medical one. But someone with a general power of attorney can sign such agreements.
Can You Rescind a Nursing Home Arbitration Agreement?
Again, do not sign them. You do not have to, and they are not in your family’s best interest.
If you do sign one, please understand you can rescind an arbitration agreement, generally speaking, for 90 days.
Consult a Nursing Home Abuse Law Firm in Colorado
If you have questions about an arbitration agreement you have signed, please call us. If you are thinking about signing one, DON’T do it.
If something bad happens to your loved ones, you and they want all of your rights. You want to seek accountability in front of your peers, not lawyers in a backroom office building. Don’t give away such precious legal rights. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation with a nursing home abuse lawyer in Denver.
Images used under creative commons license – commercial use (7/1/2026). Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash