Jim Wilkes Named One Of 'Top 10 Most Influential People' In Long-Term Care Industry

Online, February 1, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Long-Term Living Magazine's list of the Top 10 Most Influential People in the long-term care industry included Tampa attorney Jim Wilkes among such luminaries as the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, former HHS Director and Governor Tommy Thompson, as well as Emma Holder, the founder of the oldest long-term care resident advocacy group in the nation.

Editor Richard Peck said of Wilkes that his influence was to "materially raise the level of care in American nursing homes out of sheer fear," citing the fact that Wilkes' firm "has spent the past 20 years winning liability judgments against nursing homes totaling hundreds of millions of dollars."

Indeed, Wilkes & McHugh, P.A. has achieved record-setting verdicts in multiple states, as well as key court rulings addressing nursing home liability. Jim Wilkes has been called the "pioneer" of nursing home litigation because until he and partner Tim McHugh came along, no one was willing to fight for the rights of abused and neglected elderly. Over the years, they have highlighted the life-threatening pressure ulcers, falls, fractures, and more that nursing home residents suffer because of understaffing by large for-profit chains.

According to its website, Long-Term Living Magazine is, "the leading provider of practical, in-depth, business-building and patient/resident care information. Its readers are owners, administrators and directors of nursing at skilled nursing care and assisted living facilities; continuing care retirement centers; post-acute care facilities, and independent living communities."

To read the cover story in this month's edition, visit www.ltlmagazine.com and to learn more about Jim Wilkes and his law firm, visit www.wilkesmchugh.com.