Sun-Mar Health Care Inc will be paying $2 million to residents who previously lived in their Southern California nursing homes, as the result of a class action lawsuit that alleged poor care of residents.

The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court and claimed that the company did not provide the care that it advertised to potential clients.

"These facilities are giving out brochures about this wonderful, superlative care...it's just not true," said attorney Stephen Garcia, who represents the nursing home residents.

There are around 4,000 people who lived in Sun-Mar facilities between January 2005 and January 2008 who are part of the suit. Approximately one fifth of those people are still alive, but Garcia says that the point of the lawsuit was never about the money. He says it was an opportunity to change the way care was provided for people who were still in the facilities.

These nursing homes were horribly understaffed and the employees were vastly under-trained. The California Department of Public Health has investigated more than 11,000 nursing home complaints in the past year and a half.

"If everyone had known the regulatory history of these facilities," Garcia said, "they would not have put their mother or father in them."

If someone you care about has been the victim of nursing home abuse, contact a nursing home abuse attorney right away.