YOUR AARP
Battling for Justice on Your Behalf
AARP Foundation litigation team defends the rights of older Americans
William Alvarado Rivera
IN 2017, Gloria Single, 82, who had dementia, was sent to the hospital by her nursing home staff after she threw utensils at residents in the dining room. Later, the California facility where she’d lived with her husband for five years refused to allow her back—an action called “patient dumping.”
That triggered a yearslong legal battle, in which AARP Foundation lawyers fought to uphold state and federal laws that prohibit what happened to Single. In 2021, a California court ruled her rights were violated, confirming a legal precedent that protects more than a million nursing home residents.
For more than two decades, the AARP Foundation litigation team has taken up legal struggles like Single's in courts around the country. Among the issues tackled in these battles have been age discrimination, workplace bias, nursing home abuses and pension fraud. Through these cases the team has not only helped many individuals, it has shaped aging policy in America.
“We always want our cases to have as broad a reach as possible, both directly and then through deterrence,” says William Alvarado Rivera, AARP Foundation senior vice president for litigation.
Foundation lawyers also file briefs as “friends of the court” in cases involving important legal issues affecting people 50 and older. Recent examples include those filed in support of Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices and in cases aimed at protecting older homeowners from getting their home equity confiscated when they are unable to pay their property taxes.
Over the past five years, the team has taken on a lead role in over 20 cases and filed over 50 amicus briefs.
New challenges lie ahead, like the role AI can play in workplace bias, Rivera says: Some companies are using new AI recruitment tools targeting specific demographics to make it harder for older Americans to find jobs.
But the lawyers at AARP Foundation see their work as both a challenge and a privilege. “It is a unique opportunity to be able to have a law firm within a nonprofit that has a mission as big and bold as ending senior poverty,” Rivera says.
For more information, visit aarpfoundation.org/litigation.
Recently, the AARP Foundation litigation team has been fighting against:
Age discrimination: Foundation lawyers filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of older workers claiming to have been discriminated against when they applied for a job at RTX Corporation (formerly known as Raytheon), one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies.
Mismanaged retirement pensions: In August, the litigation team helped reach a partial settlement in a class action suit filed to help employees and retirees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) who lost nearly $90 million after their fiduciaries mishandled their retirement funds.
Understaffed nursing homes: Foundation attorneys filed a class action lawsuit against Alden Group, one of Illinois’ biggest nursing home operators, alleging that the company intentionally understaffed its facilities, therefore neglecting residents’ health and putting them in danger.
Wage theft: In 2023, Foundation lawyers filed a class action lawsuit alleging that a Maryland home care agency was underpaying its workers, many of whom were older adults living on low incomes.