Blog | November 19, 2025

Preparation is Key to Defending Managerial Employees in Long-Term Care Litigation

In long-term care litigation, plaintiffs’ counsel often targets managerial staff, putting your facility’s leaders directly in the line of fire.  At the recent DRI Seminar, Max Beach, Sarah Jane Truong, and Paul McCartney provided expert insight on this challenge.  In their presentation, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” they emphasized thorough deposition preparation for these key employees, along with front line staff, is critical.

Strategizing for Deposition Success

Managers—including administrators, directors of nursing, medical directors and owners—must understand the defense themes and how their testimony supports the overall strategy.  The following are the key areas for preparation, addressing the topics plaintiffs’ counsel predictably covers:

  • Policies and Procedures: Ensure managers can speak knowledgably about relevant policies and establish their role in the creation and implementation of these protocols.
  • Regulations: Prepare managers to demonstrate fluency with federal and state regulations, a frequent focus of plaintiffs’ counsel as an area of competency.
  • Standard of Care: Highlight a manager’s knowledge on standards of care.  Emphasize that care plans are individualized, based on each resident’s needs and diagnoses.
  • Staffing Levels:  Counter the common narrative of understaffing.  Prepare managers to address questions about staffing ratios and training without validating an adversarial narrative.
  • Budgeting vs. Clinical Decisions: Counter the argument of “profits over people.” Frame budgets and financial documents as business tools, not as factors in clinical decision-making.
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Preparing the Full Team

Preparation is not limited to managers.  For non-managerial staff, the medical record is the primary tool for identifying potential deponents.  Other sources include incident reports and resident surveys.  Counsel should interview involved staff members as early as possible, including former employees.  For cooperative current employees, a final pre-deposition meeting should occur within a day or two of their testimony to keep information fresh.  Preparation techniques should be adjusted for hostile or uncooperative former employees.

Empowering Counsel with Data

To streamline witness preparation, Excelas’ clients leverage the Comprehensive Integrated Timeline Tool, or CITT, to organize and analyze critical case data.  This powerful tool combines key medical record information with other documents to create a focused, easy-to-read report.

The CITT pulls together diverse documents into a single framework, including:

  • Internal corporate communications
  • Corporate policies and procedures
  • Relevant federal and state regulations and guidelines
  • Staffing records
  • Supply chain documentation
  • Deposition transcripts
  • Incident Reports
  • Interview notes
  • Relevant family correspondence

The CITT allows for efficient layering of data from these various sources and highlighting your facility’s actions in relation to the incident/time period in question.  Images of source documents are imbedded in the CITT for ease of reference.

Originally built for rapid responses to regulatory agencies, the CITT is an invaluable asset for deposition readiness.  Contact us today for a demonstration of how our Comprehensive Integrated Timeline can be a cost-effective and powerful addition to your legal toolkit.

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