July 2, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
Dudensing Law founder Ed Dudensing presented a continuing legal education webinar for the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), teaching plaintiff-side elder abuse attorneys how to read and use nursing home financial records as litigation evidence.
June 29, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
Law.com’s The Recorder has named founder Ed Dudensing as one of three finalists for “Attorney of the Year” at the 2026 California Legal Awards, and sat down with him to discuss his career and convictions that led to the recognition.
June 26, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
Levin Associates, an industry side publisher of data relating to mergers, acquisitions, and finance in health care and seniors housing, recently posted a video discussing trends in the long-term care sector. Among other things, this video addressed Dudensing Law’s recent $110 million jury verdict against a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT), Colony Capital, and a private equity firm, Formation Capital. The video warns that the verdict could “scare off capital” from investing in the long-term care space.
June 24, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
Dudensing Law is proud to welcome four exceptional law students to the firm this summer each bringing a background in service, advocacy, and a commitment to standing up for those who have been wronged.
June 9, 2026
Originally published by
Hunterbrook
A recent investigation by Hunterbrook reports that The Ensign Group, the largest operator of skilled nursing facilities in the United States, systematically understaffs its facilities, resulting in millions of hours of missing care for some of the nation’s sickest and most vulnerable residents.
Part one of the investigation examined millions of CMS datapoints and reviewed thousands of pages of documents, finding a 5-million-hour gap between the nursing care Ensign’s residents needed and the care they received between July and November 2024.
Hunterbrook interviewed Dudensing Law founder Ed Dudensing as part of its reporting. “The regulation is that you have to staff to meet the needs of residents, and that consistently does not happen,” said Ed. “That’s illegal.”
The investigation also found that Ensign facilities consistently failed to meet minimum state staffing requirements in California, Washington, Tennessee, and Kansas on more than 18,000 cumulative days between 2020 and 2025.
Watch Hunterbrook‘s companion video on YouTube
June 4, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
We’re proud to announce that Dudensing Law has once again been recognized in the prestigious 2026 Chambers and Partners USA Guide, maintaining its ranking in Band 3 for Litigation: Mainly Plaintiffs – California. This year’s recognition carries added distinction, as firm founder Ed Dudensing also earned an individual ranking in the same practice category.
April 28, 2026
Originally published by
Law.com
Dudensing Law is proud to announce that Founder Ed Dudensing has been named an “Attorney of the Year” finalist for the 2026 California Legal Awards, presented by Law.com and The Recorder.
The California Legal Awards recognize the state’s most accomplished attorneys across practice areas, honoring those who have demonstrated exceptional skill, leadership, and impact in the law.
Ed Dudensing has built Dudensing Law into one of California’s premier firms for elder abuse and neglect litigation. Combining meticulous trial strategy with a deep commitment to fighting for elders and their families, he has secured historic jury verdicts and multimillion-dollar recoveries while driving systemic reform in long-term care facilities across the state.
April 21, 2026
Originally published by
NPR
Dudensing Law Founder Ed Dudensing is featured in a new KFF Health News investigation published in NPR that exposes how real estate investment trusts (REITs) have taken control of the nation’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities with devastating consequences for residents.
The piece, “Real estate investors are buying up long-term care facilities. Residents can suffer,” discusses a recent Dudensing Law verdict. In March 2026, a Sacramento County jury awarded a $110 million total verdict against Colony Capital, the publicly traded REIT, and Formation Capital, the private equity investment firm that oversaw Greenhaven Estates, on behalf of the four daughters of Mildred Hernandez. Mildred was 100 years old, lived with Alzheimer’s dementia, and died of hypothermia after wandering from the facility in the middle of the night. The verdict is the largest elder neglect verdict against an assisted living facility in California history.
As Ed told NPR: “REIT money is very detached from knowing about or caring about patient or resident outcomes, because it’s not in their business model. Their allegiance is to their investors.”
April 15, 2026
Originally published by
Daily Journal
Dudensing Law Founder Ed Dudensing recently authored an article in the Daily Journal titled “Why Loosening Sedative Rules in Nursing Homes Would Put Vulnerable Patients at Serious Risk.” The piece offers a powerful look at the growing threat of chemical restraint to nursing home residents across the country and the federal rollback that could make it worse.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ own watchdog recently confirmed what elder abuse attorneys have long known: nursing homes are administering dangerous antipsychotic drugs to dementia patients not for medical need, but to reduce staffing demands, and falsifying diagnoses to hide it.
The article details the human cost of this practice, including the case of Alando Williams, a Dudensing Law client and California nursing home resident who died in January 2023 after it is alleged that staff sedated him with Ativan and morphine as a substitute for proper supervision. “Mr. Williams’ case is not an exception,” Ed warns, citing a 2021 federal review that found more than 12,000 residents receiving antipsychotics never appeared in facility records as having received them.
Ed’s piece raises concerns about a federal proposal to roll back reporting requirements for antipsychotic use in nursing homes. “The answer to an imperfect oversight mechanism is not to gut it,” he writes. “The answer is to strengthen it by requiring non-pharmacological interventions to be documented before prescribing, closing the schizophrenia diagnosis loophole, and implementing staffing requirements that would make sedation unnecessary in the first place. “
April 6, 2026
Originally published by
dudensinglaw.com
Dudensing Law is proud to announce that Founder Ed Dudensing has been named to the 2026 Lawdragon 100 Managing Partners You Need to Know guide. The guide highlights the nation’s top law firm leaders who combine exceptional legal skill with outstanding firm management and vision.
Dudensing Law is now on Substack! Founder Ed Dudensing will be sharing legal analysis, case insights, and commentary on the issues shaping elder care in California and beyond.
If you have ever wanted to understand elder abuse cases, what the law requires of care facilities, and why corporate structures matter, this is the place.
Subscribe here: protectcaliforniaelders.substack.com/
#DudensingLaw #elderabuselaw #substack
Some nursing homes are not medicating residents to treat them -- they are using medication to sedate them.
Founder Ed Dudensing has seen this pattern throughout his career: facilities that are chronically understaffed turn to sedatives and antipsychotic medications as a substitute for adequate care.
Ed wrote about the risks of weakening federal oversight of sedative use in nursing homes in an op-ed for the Daily Journal.
Read the full article: www.dailyjournal.com/articles/390746-why-loosening-sedative-rules-in-nursing-homes-would-put-vuln...
#DudensingLaw #elderabuselaw #NursingHomeNeglect
We are excited to highlight one of our summer clerks, Elizabeth “Buffy” Miksztal.
Buffy is a rising 3L at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she serves as co-president of the Plaintiffs' Law Association at Berkeley. Before law school, she worked as an EMT responding to calls at skilled nursing facilities, an experience that gives her firsthand insight into the vulnerabilities facing the clients we represent every day.
Buffy externed for District Court Judge Pitts during her 1L summer, where she saw how plaintiff-side civil litigation can serve as a tool for justice for vulnerable populations. Most recently, she worked on criminal defense appeals at the First District Appellate Project in Oakland.
We are glad to have her on the team this summer.
#DudensingLaw #MeetTheTeam #ElderAbuseLaw
In California elder abuse litigation, understaffing is recognized as far more than a simple management error.
Founder Ed Dudensing, author of the 2025 Rutter Group treatise “Elder Abuse Litigation,” provides critical insights into why chronic understaffing is often a calculated corporate decision to maximize profits at the expense of patient care.
California case law now recognizes that understaffing alone can support a jury finding of “recklessness.” This standard is critical because it shifts the focus from individual errors to corporate decisions that create unsafe conditions for vulnerable residents.
Learn more about the Rutter Group treatise: dudensinglaw.com/expertise/
#DudensingLaw #RutterGroup #ElderAbuseLitigation
Meet the team!
Office Manager and Senior Litigation Secretary Kari Kalista recently celebrated 15 years with Dudensing Law.
With deep expertise in civil procedure, court rules at every level, and every phase of case development, she has been an anchor of the firm's operations since day one.
Learn more about Kari and the rest of our team: dudensinglaw.com/about/
#MeetTheTeam #DudensingLaw #ElderAbuseLaw