Topline:
Edison International on Wednesday announced a recovery compensation plan for victims of the Eaton Fire that company officials said would provide “fast payments and fair resolutions.” The announcement was made on LAist’s AirTalk daily news show.
The details: Edison will accept claims from homeowners and renters who lost homes or suffered smoke and ash damage. The claims will be evaluated using a model to determine how much the company will pay out. The program is voluntary, and there are no fees. But if victims accept a settlement payment, they will have to drop any legal claims against Edison, whose power lines are believed to have ignited the fire.
Who’s covered: The comprehensive program includes owner and tenant claims for total and partial structure loss, commercial property loss, business interruption, non-burn damage (such as smoke, soot or ash), physical injury and death.
Payouts: Claimants will receive a settlement offer within 90 days of a substantially complete submission, according to Edison. Payments will be made within 30 days of the settlement being accepted. If the complexity of a claim requires analysis beyond the streamlined documentation required in the initial claim form, a detailed review will be available.
Read on ... for details about scheduled information sessions hosted by Edison.
Edison International on Wednesday announced a recovery compensation plan for victims of the Eaton Fire that company officials said would provide “fast payments and fair resolutions.” The announcement was made on LAist’s AirTalk daily news show.
Edison announces changes to compensation program for Eaton Fire victims
Who is eligible?
Edison will accept claims from homeowners, renters and businesses affected by the Eaton Fire in a variety of ways. That includes total or partial structure losses, homes with smoke and ash damage, commercial property loss, business interruption, non-burn damage (such as smoke, soot or ash), physical injuries, emotional distress and deaths.
Survivors who already sold their properties are also eligible for the program. Hedge funds and insurance companies are not.
See the full proposal here and what changed from the previous proposal here. Edison provided a map of which properties are eligible (LAist has inquired about a higher resolution image).
How the payouts work
Survivors can choose two paths for a payout:
- Edison’s “fast pay” option will provide an offer within 90 days of submitting a claim. If the claim is accepted, payment will be made within 30 days.
- If survivors don’t feel the first offer is fair, they can choose to have a “detailed review,” which can take up to nine months for a payment offer, but there’s no guarantee that offer will be higher.
Instead of accepting a payout, survivors can also pursue legal claims against Edison. Accepting a payout will include agreeing not to sue Edison, the company says.
But survivors can continue their litigation at the same time as applying for the payout program.
“Somebody can go through the entire program and decide at the very last minute they don't want to participate. That's OK,” Edison Chief Executive Pedro Pizarro said on AirTalk.
If they use an attorney to apply for Edison’s payout program, which is not required, survivors will receive an offer for additional compensation equal to 10% of their net damages to help cover that cost.
Claims will be evaluated using a model developed by Compass Lexecon, with methodology independently analyzed by RAND, to determine the property’s value and how much the company will pay out. The program is voluntary, and there are no fees.
There is no limit to the number or maximum amount of payouts, Pizarro said.
Edison has put together multiple examples of how payouts may work at the “View Sample Offers” tab on this page.
How does the payout work with insurance?
Edison will deduct any insurance coverage from its offer.
“We are hoping that insurance companies step up and do their part here, too, and treat everybody impacted fairly,” Pizarro said.
“We need to make sure that we don't end up with double payments,” Pizarro added.
Find more details on the company’s FAQ about the program.
Initial reactions
Andrew Wessels, whose home was damaged by smoke, said Edison’s plan feels to him as though it was “ designed to pressure people into a low-ball settlement because they need the money now.”
Wessels, a member of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network from west Altadena, said the new plan primarily expands the number of households eligible but doesn’t address some of the biggest concerns brought up by survivors, including increasing compensation for still-standing homes with smoke and ash damage. Edison’s plan offers a flat compensation fee of $10,000 for each structure with damage from smoke, soot or ash.
“We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage being reduced to a token $10,000 sum,” Wessels said.
Joy Chen, who co-founded the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said the plan also requires full insurance payouts to be deducted from Edison’s compensation, even if a survivor hasn’t received or may never receive that full payout from the insurance company.
“ Edison is deducting the full value of our insurance contracts from what it owes us, but 70% of insured survivors are having delays and denials that are impeding our entire recovery,” Chen said. “What it does is it causes us to be shortchanged on both sides, both from insurance and from Edison.”
Chen said the changes don’t go far enough and that much of what’s in a 51-page report the group submitted to Edison with survivor feedback still stands.
Amanda Riddle, a lawyer working on a lawsuit against SoCal Edison, said the program remains too sparse on details about how insurance and taxes may interact with the payout. She also said delayed trial dates could push people to resolve their cases “at a deep discount.”
“We continue to urge Edison to instead enter into a full, fair and negotiated settlement process,” Riddle wrote in a statement to LAist.
The first set of lawsuits against SoCal Edison are not set to go to trial until early 2027.
Where to get more info
Multiple sessions have been scheduled for participants to learn more about the program. Registration information is available at sce.com/directclaims for the first two scheduled sessions:
- Saturday, Nov. 1, 10 to 11:30 a.m., John Muir High School (1905 Lincoln Ave., Pasadena). Register here.
- Wednesday, Nov. 5, 7 to 8:30 p.m. (virtual). Register here.
- You can also call (888) 912-8528 (Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) with questions about your specific situation. Assistance is available in Spanish and other languages.
To get more details, go to Edison’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program webpage.
