More than 10,000 survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires are seeking legal standing in the state’s enforcement proceeding against State Farm.
“If granted, we'll have the right to conduct discovery, present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, participate in settlement decisions, and advocate directly for the remedies that help survivors rebuild and return home,” Joy Chen, Executive Director of the Every Fire Survivors Network, said.
Chen says they've documented more than 1,600 firsthand accounts of the major insurance companies mishandling claims, delaying people's recovery.
Dianne Brigham is one of the people who experienced that.
“The delays, opaque calculations, and antiquated systems appear to actually be designed to confuse and wear out customers like me so that we give up and settle for less,” she said.
The group's attorney, Michelle Myers, said that they should hear back from the state in 15 days.
“The state has taken its time to get this assigned to a judge, and so we're hoping that Insurance Commissioner [Ricardo] Lara will make the decision quickly,” she said.
Chen said she and the members of the group “never asked for this fight.”
“We're parents, grandparents, neighbors, lovers, but when the company that we trusted robs our families, robs our children of the future that we have worked so hard to build for them,” she said. “We have no choice but to fight back.”
The State Department of Insurance found hundreds of violations in State Farm fire claims, including repeated adjuster reassignments and the company misrepresenting its policy terms.
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