What to consider when deciding whether to join a fire lawsuit

Maybe you’ve been inundated with the ads on social media. You’ve probably seen the billboards. On top of everything else fire survivors are dealing with, a question arises — should you also join a lawsuit?

Survivors have two years to sue for emotional distress and physical injury; three years to sue for property damage.

Here’s what to consider.

The lead cases

Eaton Fire: Because there are so many affected households and businesses, there is a designated “master complaint” that all are filed under and consolidated in front of a single judge. The court has appointed a “liaison counsel” for individual plaintiffs. All the Eaton Fire suits will be litigated individually in front of Judge Laura A. Seigle in downtown L.A.’s Spring Street courthouse. Amanda Riddle, managing partner with Bay Area firm Corey, Luzaich, de Ghetaldi & Riddle; Rahul Ravipudi of Panish, Shea, Ravipudi; and Gerald Singleton of Singleton Schreiber have been appointed as co-liaisons.

Palisades Fire: Westlake Village-based Robertson and Associates filed the first lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power — that case has been designated the lead case by the court in the Palisades Fire litigation. That firm’s founder, Alexander “Trey” Robertson IV, has been appointed as co-liaison, along with attorneys from the firms Foley, Bezek, Behle & Curtis; Boyle Law PC; and McNulty Law Firm.

Consider how you were affected

The death of a loved one, losing your home, emotional trauma, smoke damage in your surviving home, being displaced — there are a wide variety of ways people were affected by January’s fires that would make them eligible to join a lawsuit.

Money from a lawsuit can help close some gaps in insurance coverage, but don’t get your hopes up too high. That money will likely take at least two years to end up in survivors’ pockets, and it’s usually not enough to make everyone whole.

“We ended up getting 20 cents on the dollar of what we needed,” said Scott Tallal, a Woolsey Fire survivor who sued Southern California Edison after that fire was sparked by the utility’s equipment.

Riddle added that that is a lower payout than some other fires. After the 2017 and 2018 Northern California fires sparked by Pacific Gas and Electric, plaintiffs are getting about 70 cents on the dollar.

Choose a lawyer carefully

Most of the fire litigation is “mass tort,” not “class action,” (though there is a class action suit, too). That means there are thousands of lawsuits being filed at the same time, but they’re all individual cases, so each plaintiff has to get their own lawyer and file their own suit, said Riddle, the co-liaison attorney for the Eaton Fire cases.

But with all the social media ads and billboards, it can be tough to vet who is legitimate. So treat it like a job interview.

Here are some of the most important things to consider when vetting an attorney, according to Riddle:

• First, check out if they're licensed with the California State Bar.
• Then ask: Are they experienced in California, particularly wildfire cases in California? Different states have different laws, so it’s important a lawyer is well-versed in the laws here. 
• For Eaton Fire cases, has this lawyer or firm worked on utility-sparked wildfire cases? 
• Make sure the law firm has a deep bench — these cases can take years and require a lot of labor. How long has the firm been around? Is it brand new, or has it weathered large cases in the past? How many other experienced attorneys and staff does the firm have? 
• Has the attorney you’re interviewing held a leadership role in past cases? That shows that not only were they extensively involved in past cases, but also that the court and other attorneys trusted them to hold those leadership roles.
• How do they plan to communicate with you? Can they serve your language needs? 

“You want to find the one where you feel comfortable, you feel like you can work with them in a way that works for you,” Riddle said.

The lead firms can also help direct survivors to other legitimate firms.

The later a fire survivor files a lawsuit, the longer it may take for their case to be resolved, one expert cautions.

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Etienne Laurent

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Associated Press

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What’s the cost?

Most firms handle these cases on a contingency basis, meaning they don’t get paid until the settlement (and yes, these cases are usually resolved via settlements). Generally, the attorney fee is between 20% and 25% of the settlement, plus additional costs related to your specific case.

“ We have to hire experts to look at infrastructure. We've got to hire electrical engineers and metallurgists and cause-and-origin experts and fire-spread experts. We have court fees. We have transcript fees. We have filing fees, all of those type of things,” Riddle said.

That usually adds up to about 2% of the settlement, Riddle said.

There’s also the risk of the party who's being sued going bankrupt — that’s what happened after Pacific Gas and Electric equipment sparked devastating fires in 2017 and 2018 in Northern California.

Riddle, however, said she thinks that’s unlikely in the Eaton Fire case.

What’s the timeline?

Survivors have two years from the start of the fire to sue for emotional distress and physical injury — that deadline is Jan. 7, 2027. They have three years to sue for property damage — until Jan. 7, 2028.

While the cases individually likely won’t take more than a few weeks, mediating and resolving cases is not likely to start until the middle of next year, Riddle said.

“These trials are not going to take that long, but what's going to happen is not all 10,000 households are going to have a trial at the same time,” she said.

The later a survivor files a lawsuit, the later their case is likely to be resolved.

“Memories fade and documents get lost, so you want to make sure that you're working with a lawyer, I think sooner rather than later, so that you can preserve all the information and documents you need to maximize the value of your case,” Riddle said.