Putting a parent, partner, or relative in a nursing home comes with a basic expectation: they’ll be safe and properly cared for.

Sometimes the warning signs appear gradually. It might start with an unexplained bruise, a bedsore that keeps getting worse, or a fall that staff can’t clearly account for. Maybe a resident suddenly seems anxious, withdrawn, or afraid of someone who works there.

For some residents, those concerns can overlap with broader problems in long-term care, including the problems faced by LGBTQ nursing home residents.

Once a family starts wondering whether neglect or abuse played a role, choosing a lawyer becomes its own challenge. Chicago has plenty of personal injury firms, but nursing home cases are a different kind of work. They can involve years of medical records, staffing schedules, internal reports, witnesses, and conflicting explanations about how an injury happened.

The practices below were selected based on their Chicago presence, nursing home litigation experience, and publicly documented case history. The order does not represent a ranking.

Best Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in Chicago

Nursing Home Law Center / Jonathan Rosenfeld

Nursing home cases are the main focus at Nursing Home Law Center.

It works as an attorney network focused on abuse, neglect, and wrongful death claims involving long-term care facilities. Jonathan Rosenfeld, a Chicago attorney with 25 years of elder abuse experience, is closely associated with its legal work.

The case mix is broad. Pressure sores, falls, fractures, medication mistakes, dehydration, malnutrition, sexual abuse, and wrongful death all fall within its stated focus.

In serious cases, Chicago nursing home abuse lawyers may need to compare care plans, medical charts, staffing records, and incident reports to understand where the care broke down.

That concentration is what separates it from firms where nursing home cases make up one small corner of a much larger personal injury practice.

Levin & Perconti

Levin & Perconti has been around this type of litigation for a long time.

The Chicago firm has handled cases involving serious bedsores, medication mistakes, falls, resident-on-resident violence, and deaths tied to poor care. More importantly, there is a fairly extensive public record of what those cases have produced.

In November 2025, a Cook County jury awarded $12.2 million in a case involving a 79-year-old woman who developed severe pressure wounds that became infected. Levin & Perconti called it the largest nursing home verdict in Illinois history.

The verdict stands out, but the firm’s longer history in this area matters more. Nursing home litigation has been part of the firm’s work for decades, rather than a practice area added recently because there is demand for it.

GWC Injury Lawyers

GWC Injury Lawyers takes a broader personal injury approach, but nursing home abuse and neglect is still a distinct part of its Chicago practice.

The firm handles physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional mistreatment, neglect, and wrongful death claims.

Its description of the investigative process is worth paying attention to. These cases may involve medical charts, inspection records, staffing histories, witness statements, photographs, video, and outside experts.

That can matter when a facility’s explanation does not line up with what the family has seen.

Nursing home cases often lack a single dramatic piece of evidence. Sometimes the problem only becomes obvious when several small inconsistencies are put next to each other.

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard is a familiar name in Illinois personal injury and medical malpractice law, and its nursing home work sits within that larger practice.

Its attorneys handle claims involving falls, pressure sores, malnutrition, dehydration, medication errors, physical abuse, and wrongful death.

The firm says it brings in investigators and expert witnesses when needed.

Take a serious bedsore case. The question may involve how often a resident was repositioned, whether nutrition was adequate, what nurses recorded, whether those records were accurate, and how quickly the wound was treated once it appeared. None of that can be reduced to a single hospital note.

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard has also published nursing home settlements and institutional negligence results, giving families some real case history to examine.

Malman Law

Malman Law is another Chicago practice with a dedicated nursing home abuse and neglect division.

Its attorneys handle cases involving bedsores, falls, poor supervision, medication mistakes, physical neglect, and wrongful death. The firm has also made a number of its nursing home results public.

One of the largest is a $5.5 million verdict involving the death of an 80-year-old woman following a lack of oxygen. The firm has reported a $3 million nursing home judgment as well, along with cases involving burns, pressure sores, falls, and other forms of neglect.

Past verdicts cannot tell a family what their own case is worth. They can, however, show whether a firm has actually dealt with serious nursing home claims before.

What Makes a Strong Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer?

The biggest verdict is not necessarily the best way to choose a lawyer.

A pressure sore case is different from a medication overdose. A repeated-fall case can turn on supervision and staffing. A wrongful death claim may involve complicated medical questions about what actually caused the resident’s decline.

An experienced lawyer should know where to look for that evidence.

That might mean comparing nursing notes with staffing schedules. It could mean checking whether an incident report matches what relatives were told. Sometimes the useful evidence is buried in routine paperwork that looked harmless when it was created.

Communication matters as well. Families should be able to get a straight explanation of what the lawyer sees in the case, what still needs to be investigated, and what outcome is realistically possible.

When Serious Neglect Calls for Action

One of the hardest parts of these cases is knowing when poor health ends and neglect begins.

Older adults bruise. They fall. Their health can change quickly. None of that automatically means a facility did something wrong.

What matters more is whether those problems form a pattern.

Repeated falls, unexplained injuries, untreated sores, sudden weight loss, dehydration, unusual fearfulness, or recurring medication problems can deserve a closer look when nobody can give a convincing explanation.

Families can file long-term care complaints with the Illinois Department of Public Health when they suspect problems inside a regulated facility.

It is also smart to save whatever already exists. Photos, emails, medical paperwork, text messages, names of staff members, and notes from conversations can help establish what happened and when.

Finding the Right Fit for Your Family

The best-known firm is not automatically the best fit.

Some families need a lawyer who has handled fatal neglect claims. Others are dealing with a bedsore, repeated falls, a medication error, or a pattern of unexplained injuries.

The useful question is simple: has this lawyer dealt with something similar before?

A strong answer should be backed by actual experience, not broad marketing language. When the situation is serious, that distinction matters.

The views, opinions, and recommendations expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are provided for informational and editorial purposes only. They do not constitute professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. OutSFL makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of the content and assumes no liability for any actions taken based on it. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of OutSFL.