Worried about someone in a California care home? Start here.
California protects seniors better than almost any state — but the system for reporting a problem is a maze, and most families call the wrong number first. We untangled it. Below: who to call, what happens after you do, and what your family has a right to.
Not sure if it's abuse?
However you're most comfortable — a California lawyer will read it. Free, and you're not signing up for anything.
Someone will text you back within 15 minutes.
As seen on
The team that reads the records also takes the cases.
Defend Our Elders is published by Justice 4 Elders, a practice that handles nothing but neglected seniors — with an office in Los Angeles and lawyers admitted in California. Our watchdogs go through the state's inspection files; our lawyers take the cases those files point to.
Figures come from the CMS Provider Data Catalog and state licensing data, dated on each page. See exactly how we count →
We read every inspection the state published last year. The same homes keep coming up.
Our watchdogs go through the reports California inspectors file on every care home, plus the federal ratings. Nothing here is our opinion — it's what the records say, and every number comes from a public record we can point you to. We refresh it every three months.
A third of California's nursing homes are rated below average.
Medicare gives every nursing home a rating from one to five stars. Here is how California's 1,165 homes fall. One thing the government doesn't tell you plainly: the stars are graded on a curve within each state — the bottom 20% of homes in California get one star no matter how they'd compare in Nevada. So a three-star home here isn't the same as a three-star home there. Use the rating to decide which inspection reports to read, not as the answer on its own.
CMS Care Compare, all 1,165 certified California nursing homes, checked 11 August 2026. How we counted →
Reporting a problem in California, step by step
You don't need proof. You don't need to be family. You don't even have to give your name. Anyone can report, and a suspicion is enough — that's how the law is written on purpose. Here's the order we'd do it in.
Who to call — and what to say when they pick up
California splits this between agencies that don't all handle the same thing. Nursing homes are licensed by the California Department of Public Health. Assisted living is licensed by Community Care Licensing at the Department of Social Services. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman can act on your person's behalf in either. And if your person lives at home it is county Adult Protective Services. That is the whole map, and now you have it. What we can tell you is which one applies to your situation, what to say when you call, and what they will ask you for. We do this every day; most families only do it once.
We'll help you file the report — and make sure it lands
For a nursing home the complaint goes to the Department of Public Health district office covering that county — that is the one that can actually cite the home and put it on its public record. For assisted living it goes to Community Care Licensing. In both cases file with the Ombudsman as well, because they can walk into the building and the licensing agency cannot do that quickly. We'll tell you which combination applies to you, sit with you while you make the call if you want, and follow up if nobody gets back to you. You can stay anonymous the whole way through.
Get the records before they're gone
Take photos of injuries and of the room — your phone stamps the date. Write down who you spoke to and what they said, in their words. Then the care plan, the chart, and the staffing sheets need to be requested in writing. That last part is where families lose cases. It matters more in California than it used to: since January, if a home destroys or alters records, the standard of proof a family has to meet drops. We send that request for you the same day you call.
Find out what your family is actually owed
Reporting can get your person safe and put a mark on the home's record. What it can't do is get your family anything back for what happened. That's a separate road, it has a deadline on it, and the deadline is shorter than most people expect. One call tells you whether you're on it and how long you've got.
Think you might be overreacting? Tell us anyway.
Tell us in a sentence or two. A California lawyer will give you a straight answer — and if there's nothing here legally, we'll tell you that too, and point you at whoever can actually help. Free either way, and nobody will pressure you.
The lowest-rated nursing homes in California
We took every home the government rates one star out of five, then ranked them by how many times an inspector recorded that a resident was actually harmed — not by how many findings there were. Nationally about 93 in every 100 findings are the "could have been harmed" kind, which is why a raw violation count tells you almost nothing. All of this is public record; we've just put it in one place. A finding means an inspector looked into it and agreed — it is not a court ruling.
From the federal Medicare ratings and inspection record for every certified nursing home in California, checked August 2026. "Actually harmed" means a finding graded G or above on the federal scale. Ratings change every few months, so we check every few months. A low rating doesn't prove any particular resident was hurt, and homes are allowed to challenge findings. If you run one of these homes and think we've got something wrong, tell our team and we'll look again.
Why California families can ask for more than most
California's Elder Abuse Act, in plain English
Normally, suing a care home is treated like any other medical mistake — and there's a ceiling on what a family can get back. California made an exception for seniors. If a home didn't just slip up but was reckless about a problem it knew of, the ordinary rules give way. Here's what that changes:
- The home can be ordered to pay your legal fees — the law says the court shall award them, not that it may
- What your person went through still counts even after they've died. In most other kinds of California case that claim now ends with the person — elder abuse is one of the few exceptions left
- A judge can add damages meant to punish the home, on top of what it costs to make your family whole
- The company that owns the home can be on the hook — but only if an officer, director or manager knew, approved, or looked the other way
- New since January: if the home destroyed or altered records, the standard of proof for those extra remedies drops from "clear and convincing" to the ordinary one
The bar is genuinely high — a one-off mistake won't clear it, and the amount recoverable for a person's suffering after death is capped (it rises every January; in 2026 it is $470,000). What clears the bar is a pattern: short staffing the owners knew about, a care plan nobody followed, the same violation showing up year after year. Those patterns are exactly what our watchdogs look for in the inspection records.
California Welfare & Institutions Code § 15657; Civil Code §§ 3294 and 3333.2; AB 251 (2025), in force 1 January 2026.
How long does your family have?
for most elder abuse and neglect claims in California
and sometimes only this — if a court treats what happened as a medical mistake rather than neglect, the clock runs from when you found out
This is the most dangerous number on this page, because two years is the one families remember. The same facts can be treated as neglect, which gives you two years — or as a medical mistake, which the law calls medical negligence: one year from the day you found out, and in no case more than three years from the injury itself. If a city, county or the state runs the home, you have six months to file a claim, then six months after it’s turned down to sue. If someone took your person’s money, you have four years, counted from the day you found out. Two dates decide which clock you’re on: when the harm happened, and when you found out about it. Tell us both, and whether a city, county or the state runs the home. Ask us to check →
What California families ask us first
Will they take it out on my mom if I report them?
The home has five stars. Doesn't that mean it's fine?
Do I need to have proof before I call anyone?
What does it cost to have someone look at this?
Tell us what's going on. We'll tell you straight.
A California lawyer reads every message that comes in — not a call centre, not a form robot. You'll find out whether there's a case here, how long you've got, and what to do next, whether or not any of that involves us.
Someone will text you back within 15 minutes.