Founder Ed Dudensing Featured on the Prestigious Great Trials Podcast to Discuss Record $110 Million Elder Abuse Verdict
August 7, 2026
Originally published by dudensinglaw.com
For trial lawyers, an invitation to the Great Trials Podcast carries its own kind of prestige. Hosted by acclaimed trial lawyers Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey, the show has built a reputation over hundreds of episodes as the definitive insider account of the nation’s most consequential trials. The show has pulled back the curtain on cases like the $140 million verdict in Davis v. NCAA, tied to a former SMU football player’s fatal CTE diagnosis decades after his playing days, and the first “enhanced autopilot” trial against Tesla to reach a verdict. The show has also featured legendary jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn, whose juries have returned tens of billions of dollars in verdicts. For plaintiff attorneys, landing on Great Trials is an invitation to join the conversation that shapes how the trial bar thinks about its biggest wins.
Dudensing Law founder and lead counsel, Ed Dudensing, sat down with the hosts to discuss the firm’s $110 million verdict on behalf of Mildred Hernandez and her family, the largest elder abuse verdict in California history.
The facts are stark, and they point to a failure that was entirely preventable. Mildred Hernandez, a 100-year-old resident of Green Haven Estates Assisted Living Facility in Sacramento, walked through a door that locked behind her onto a staircase leading outside into 38-degree cold weather. She froze to death alone in the interior courtyard on the facility grounds.
Ed discussed the corporate structure of long-term care ownership and explained how his team traced control through holding companies using operating agreements and joint venture documents. Those records showed that Colony Capital, the publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), and Formation Capital, the private equity investment firm, retained the authority and financial control of the facility to be held directly accountable, despite hiring third-party management companies to run day-to-day operations. He also discussed the growing role of private equity and REITs in long-term elder care, and why that ownership model creates a structural misalignment between investor returns and resident safety.
The Sacramento County jury agreed that responsibility ran all the way up the ownership chain. They awarded a $110 million total verdict, including $100 million in punitive damages, split $92 million against Colony Capital and $8 million against Formation Capital.
Ed also shared the trial strategy and investigative techniques he developed over decades of elder abuse litigation to help fellow plaintiff attorneys hold corporate elder care facility owners accountable. For plaintiff attorneys, the episode doubles as a roadmap for holding corporate owners of elder care facilities accountable.
Listen to the full podcast here.