Info for claims, insurance & lawsuits

For anyone who suffered damage- whether it's structural or any kind of airborne damage (soot, smoke, particulates), they should file an insurance claim with their carrier.

There's going to be a group of people that have no insurance and people who have insurance but they are underinsured.  Those people should file a FEMA claim.  If you have good insurance coverage then FEMA won't really help you- they aren't designed to serve that group.  If you have no insurance or you're underinsured, file the FEMA claim because even if they have no funding now (or little funding), congress might pass legislation to aid in this specific disaster recovery and so then there would be FEMA money.

If you have insurance and you suffered damage and you're in the Eaton Canyon area- join the lawsuit.  It's really unlikely the insurance coverage will make people 'whole' because you suffer damage in different ways- it isn't just that you are out of your house and paying to rent a house and replace your stuff.  For lots of people it's a ton of lost work, medical issues (whether mental or physical), kid issues with school and health, all kinds of things.  So if insurance just gets you to a point where you're able to rebuild or return home, you've still had other damage.  So that's why the lawsuit is important, it helps to cover that shortfall. 

Claiming insurance and pursuing the lawsuit at the same time doesn't screw things up in any way- it's totally separate.  The insurance money should become available in chunks pretty quickly and then spread out over milestones depending on what is being remediated or rebuilt or whatever depending on your level of damage.  The lawsuit is already underway, so you join the lawsuit and simply let it proceed in the background. Periodically the firm handling the lawsuit will contact you to ask for information about you, your spouse, your kids, your damage, your emotional health and so on and so forth.  But all of that is reactive- you just wait to hear from them and they keep you apprised as the suit progresses.  Hopefully it settles in a couple of years and then individual claimants get paid out. 

It's smart to keep a daily journal of what is going on.  Even if it's just using the notes feature on your phone and you keep a brief note of what went on.  Six months from now it will be impossible to recreate everything.  Everyone always says "keep your receipts" but that's the easy one because generally we use our phones or credit cards to pay anyway so the statements and payment history are easy to find. Tracking the emotional stuff, the interrupted work, sleep, kid routines, school placement, doctor visits- all of that is helpful to put down in your notes. An information session regarding all of this will be linked here.

Robert Curtis handled Woolsey claims and now they are handling Eaton Canyon claims. Robert Curtis’s information will be linked here.

Ellen Kaufman Wolf is the litigation specialist from the information session, handled Malibu fire claims and now handling Eaton Canyon claims. Ellen Kaufman Wolf’s information will be linked here.

Expert home construction advice for fire victims from a 50-year industry veteran. Link here.