Nearly half a billion recovered for California wildfire victims

Mass torts; Various Wildfire Litigation

Various Wildfire Litigation

The wildfires that have plagued California since 2017 have burned millions of acres, destroyed tens of thousands of structures and harmed many thousands of people. Civil litigation against the state's electrical utilities has produced billions in settlements for victims, including the $13.5 billion fund from Pacific Gas & Electric set up from its bankruptcy in 2019.

The most important product of all the wildfire litigation and thousands of settlements is how they "positively effectuate a change in our client's life," said fire plaintiff's attorney Patrick McNicholas. "It's not a perfect resolution, but by and large most clients, as a result of their individual resolutions, can move on with their lives economically, emotionally and psychologically."

McNicholas said he and his mass tort firm McNicholas & McNicholas are among the handful of law firms with the most clients from the wildfires. They have represented about 15,000 clients so far, he said, and last year alone, they achieved settlements totaling close to a half-billion dollars.

But he is quick to point out that several other attorneys and law firms are doing similar work. In particular, he singled out Frank Pitre of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy and Michael A. Kelly of Walkup Melodia Kelly, especially for their work on the 2017 and 2018 fires.

Beyond the financial help for fire victims the settlements provide, the other vital result of the litigation is that "the utilities now have to pay attention to preventing wildfires," McNicholas said. "It's become more expensive for them to allow the fires to occur ... so now they're doing things, for example, like hardening their [power] lines, clearing the lines of vegetation and beginning to underground a lot of the high voltage lines, which is a huge benefit to the entire state."

Global warming and poor brush clearing by the state and individual landowners doubtless were factors in how fast the fires spread, said Brandon Castor, another attorney with the McNicholas firm. But overall, "the causes of these fires tend to be one and the same," he said. "The public utilities have either underfunded vegetation management departments, or they just don't utilize them."

The firm obtained close to $200 million in settlements for victims of 2017 fires -- $175.7 million related to the North Bay Complex fires and $10.7 million from the Thomas Fire. From fires in 2018, the firm brought in settlements totaling about $248.5 million for victims of the Camp Fires, which destroyed the town of Paradise, plus another $26.2 million from the Woolsey Fire.

The firm also obtained about $25 million in settlements for victims of the Dixie Fire in 2021, which was the largest single fire in California history. Castor said the firm represents almost 5,000 clients from that fire. McNicholas served as co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in the litigation. Price v. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., CGC-21-597072 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 10, 2021).

He also is lead counsel in litigation against Southern California Edison and the LA's DWP over 2017's Creek fire. Aguilar v. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 18STCV03092 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 31, 2018). A trial is scheduled for October.

Fire victims won't have to pay state taxes on their settlements under a series of bills adopted by the Legislature beginning in 2022. McNicholas said Pitre and Kelly spearheaded some of that legislation.

McNicholas worked to pass AB 1054, which created a fund to ensure victims of several utility-caused fires are compensated in case the utilities cannot. The three utilities covered by the fund provide the money. "Currently, there's about $25 billion in that fund," he said.

-- Don DeBenedictis