Hope Services – Social Work Negligence

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro (HBSS) obtained a multi-million dollar settlement for a 25-year-old disabled California woman who was repeatedly abused while under the care of Hope Services, one of California’s largest agencies serving developmentally disabled adults.

HBSS attorney David Moody filed suit against Hope Services after the woman was raped at knifepoint in early 2005 while her caregiver slept nearby. The suit claimed that Hope Services failed to adequately screen, hire, train, supervise and monitor its staff.

An investigation after the rape revealed many other troubling aspects of the woman’s care. The complaint alleged that the woman’s caregiver repeatedly facilitated lewd telephone conversations between her convicted sex-offender husband and the victim, who, according to testing, has an IQ of 55.

The lawsuit claimed that the woman sustained irreversible damage to both her physical and mental well-being after the rape and telephone conversations.

The case concluded before a scheduled jury trial when Hagens Berman attorney David Moody reached a multi-million dollar settlement.