Lawyer Sarah Saldmann plans to file “early March” a joint collective action including a set of complaints against the Orpea group with the Paris public prosecutor: “I am really surrounded by very determined clients and for some, it is the fight of their life”, she said on Monday January 31 on franceinfo. The group is singled out after the revelations of Victor Castanet’s book-investigation, the gravediggers, appeared this week. Several testimonies refer to ill-treatment inflicted on the elderly in Orpea retirement homes. “The book acts as a liberator of speech” families, she said.
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franceinfo: Why launch a collective action?
Sarah Saldmann: Because, for now, the complaints are relatively scattered. Everyone complained on their side or did not because the book acts as a liberator of speech. It really needs to be pointed out. They say to me: But why haven’t your customers filed a complaint? They were bereaved, lonely and alone in front of a giant. You really have to take that into account. What I want is to group the complaints together, although everyone remains independent in their complaints.
“It’s not a class action like there is in the United States, but it’s really the desire to make a mass, to make a united group against Orpea.”
Sarah Saldmann, lawyerat franceinfo
Is it a way of putting a little more pressure on Orpea, of not being alone against a large group?
Of course, because I have clients who have tried to talk to Orpea, to tell them: it’s not working, it’s not possible. Even I called Orpea. I gave them referrals for clients.
“It’s a group that looks down on you. It happened to me to have a director who laughed in my face.”
Sarah Saldmann, lawyerat franceinfo
There is no lawyer, they think absolutely everything is allowed. They also send invoices sometimes which are unjustified. As soon as you send a recommended lawyer, they stop immediately. These are practices which, on all counts, are absolutely unacceptable.
Did the testimonies accelerate after the release of the book?
It accelerated enormously because they were clients that I had before the release of the book for the most part, and who said to me: “This time, I am filing a complaint”. It was really a trigger. This was not a cause for the filing of a complaint, but this time, they said to themselves, I am not alone, I will go, it is really the moment. This class action is scheduled for early March.
Orpea denies any general policy of profitability, while recognizing specific problems related to the economic situation. According to the testimonies that you have, that does not hold?
It absolutely does not hold. At the same time, I find it hard to see them actually saying: “We are guilty of manslaughter”. It is absolutely impossible. So there, they changed directors suddenly. It’s a smokescreen. It’s really a way of saying that we are going to reduce the media pressure. No, we can’t get away with it, especially since they take someone who already knows Orpea. I am really surrounded by very determined clients and for some, it is the fight of their life.