Ed Dudensing is a seasoned trial attorney having tried more than 50 cases to verdicts. Mr. Dudensing’s trial results have made a difference in the lives of families who have been victims of elder abuse and neglect.

He attributes his success to a laser focus on prosecuting cases of neglect and abuse that take place in long term care facilities. This degree of specialization ensures a high level of expertise from a legal team intimately acquainted with the nature and outcomes of elder abuse lawsuits.

Ed Dudensing has secured the first, second, and third largest elder abuse verdicts in the Greater San Francisco/Bay Area/Sacramento region. He also currently has the largest known verdict against an assisted living facility in the United States.

In addition to his extensive trial experience with nursing home abuse cases, Mr. Dudensing’s background in criminal law has seen him handle difficult, lengthy trials involving allegations of murder, child molestation, and rape.

As part of the free case evaluation offered to all prospective clients, Mr. Dudensing employs the services of one of the preeminent geriatricians in the United States and is one of the few elder abuse attorneys in Sacramento with access to the insights of this expert. This helps him a) decide if there is a case to begin with and b) to build the strongest prosecution possible.

Like any successful litigator, Mr. Dudensing surrounds himself with a highly experienced team, each member bringing a specific skill set to the small number of cases being investigated at any one time. Together, they have the knowledge and wherewithal to be extremely thorough as they prepare for trial. No stone is left unturned. And, unlike other elder abuse lawyers, they don’t make a beeline for an early settlement.

This dogged pursuit of justice is what makes Ed Dudensing and his team stand apart. In addition to winning for his clients, his ‘prosecutorial mindset’ drives him to advance long-overdue changes to a corporate health care system that is failing thousands of nursing home and assisted living residents in this country, right now.

“We don’t try to settle them early on to save ourselves money and time,” says Mr. Dudensing. “Instead, we pursue them until they’re at a point where they’re ready to go to trial or to be resolved.”


Among other notable verdicts, Ed Dudensing has secured the three largest elder abuse verdicts in the history of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area/Sacramento area. He currently holds the largest known verdict against an assisted living facility in the United States.


“The jury,” Mr. Dudensing explains, “needs to understand [the bigger] picture. If you just go in there and say that so and so has a bedsore and you don’t make people understand that the reason that the person has a bedsore is not because of the failure of some CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) who’s being paid $9 an hour, it’s because of a failure of the systems, a failure of the corporate overseers. That’s a huge part of the picture and it takes diligence. It takes having a prosecutorial mindset because you have to dig into it.

“When it comes to corporate oversight in these developer-run companies (the ones that generally run these nursing homes), they’re shrouded in mystery. They’re very difficult to get at… it’s hard to prove the connections in a way that’s understandable to a jury. But it’s critically important that we do.”

Mr. Dudensing’s team of elder abuse attorneys and experts is adept at handling the corporate aspects of systemic elder neglect and abuse. He has spent a long time working towards exposing the ultimate liability of corporate owners, and holding these ‘alter egos of the facility’ accountable for maximizing profits at the expense of patient care.

“It’s probably my prosecutorial background,” says Mr. Dudensing, “but we’re very good at proving corporate liability. It’s important for financial recovery, and it’s important for punitive damages, to show that the corporate overseers of facilities like Eskaton must bear responsibility.”


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