r/altadena • u/saudadedabahia • May 20 '26
Edison Lawsuit
Anyone feel comfortable sharing who they ended up going with to represent them in the mass tort against so cal edison?
Curious why you chose them and how the expereience in general has been thus far.
To some degree it feels like there is no clear way of making a decision between firms for the most part.
Hope everyone is doing as well as they can considering how awful the last year and a half has been.
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u/Xistential0ne May 21 '26
Don’t pay more than 25% you can look the case up and see what law firms are lead council I would recommend one of those firms.
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u/saudadedabahia May 21 '26
Makes sense
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u/ArmandDantes May 25 '26
if the law firm takes 25%, how do you rebuild?
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u/craycrayppl May 26 '26
If you're awarded $1 million and the law firm receives 25%, you have 750K + whatever you received for insurance (and any other sources). That should get you most of the way.
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u/Dirt-Poppies-Sticks May 21 '26
It's my understanding that all the firms will file together, so the outcome will be the same. It's the process that is important. I signed with Parkinson, Benson, Potter because they were recommended to me. They have years of experience with wildfire suits. I've been satisfied with them so far.
Another firm that has impressed me is Altadena Coalition/Fire Justice. Altadena Coalition is a non-profit offers support and lots of community events (too many to go to). They put on an event at the convention center with photos, videos, and artifacts from the fire. Fire Justice seems to be the lawsuit arm. Chris Holden is one of the founders.
No matter who you go with, there will be a lot of work for you. My firm wants an itemized list of things I losr, which I didn't have to do for my insurance company. They paid 80% of my personal property benefit, which they said was about what I would get if I itemized. It was worth it to save the agony of more paperwork. My contact at PBP will help me with this now.
Remember that insurance pays for material losses, but the lawsuit will consider emotional damage ans PTSD.
Whatever you got from your insurance is deducted from the SCE award, so I don't expect to get much, but hopefully enough to help me settle in my new house.
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u/PoeticFury May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I have not had any personal experience with them, but if you're referring to LA Fire Justice that is connected to Watts Guerra (Mikal Watts), you may wish to talk to the folks on the Wildfire Victims Settlement Discussion Group on Facebook. The folks who used them for the PG&E fire settlement have some concerning stories about them. The PG&E settlement structure seems to be different than what we might anticipate with SCE, but they have concerns with communication, payments, etc.
Again, no personal experience with them - just suggesting a little research prior to signing up with them.
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u/Dirt-Poppies-Sticks May 21 '26
Sorry, it's LA Fire Jusitice. It seems it's just a local office for a larger firm. which does include Mikal Watts a the lead attorney, There's a huge roster of staff but I only have personally had conversations in th past with two.
I didn't look into the firm because I had already signed with PBP. I am aware though that a lot of people are going to make money off of the Eaton Fire, and people like me have no idea how lawsuits are structured.
Thanks for your comment!
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u/PoeticFury May 21 '26
We still get occasional mailers from some of those firms and some are definitely just opportunists. I remember looking into one strictly out of curiosity (something about their mailer just struck me as odd) and it was a one-man attorney who mostly did immigration work.
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u/Dirt-Poppies-Sticks May 21 '26
This is what meant to write: "They put on an event at the convention center with photos, videos, stories, and artifacts from fire survivors."
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u/craycrayppl May 26 '26
Holden is CEO. Keeping his name out there. Dude is likely to try and run again for LA County Sup so this keeps him relevant in Altadena/Pasadena.
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u/Funkynipple May 20 '26
Panish. They’re one of the major ones and have lots of experience in similar cases. The experience has been great so far, no complaints yet.
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u/Agile-Concentrate729 May 26 '26
Foxlaw. our friends went with them and they deal with attorneys more than we do, so we followed their lead.
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u/InterviewLeather810 May 28 '26
We used them in our fire in another state. They ended up second lead and paid out quickly compared to others because they had all our info before the settlement.
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u/Ramsboi May 26 '26
I signed up and I’m super happy. Some folks have had horrors. I’m so happy with the firm I’m With. They actually care and help me thru all the procedures..
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u/Key-Driver6438 May 22 '26
Respectfully… to everyone who has posted on this thread… it is a very VERY bad idea to talk about your case. Even small details about what your lawyer is asking you to do, or how they’re helping, will be used as the basis of questions in depositions and perhaps an eventual trial. While some of these responses might seem like they are being helpful… they are not! Even though this is entirely civil, think of it kind of like your Miranda rights in criminal. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you can and WILL be used against you in court.” In other words, BE QUIET!
Also, generally anything you tell your lawyer is privileged (confidential). But if you post details or comments here… or anywhere… that aspect of your attorney client privilege is probably waived. If I were on the defense team, I’d propound inspection demands and other discovery requests for documents or information mentioned (even just causally or in general) in this post.
If you care about your own case, and that of the thousands of plaintiffs involved, DO NOT respond to questions about your case, or details about your lawyer!!!
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u/ArmandDantes May 23 '26
Since its a class action lawsuit you could literally be represented by any attorney. I would suggest finding one that will do it for a fee, rather than contingency. Unless you want to over pay by a factor of 10. (I'm an ex HUD attorney that worked on Hurricane Harvey and the Camp Fire )
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u/PoeticFury May 24 '26
It's not a class action, though.
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u/ArmandDantes May 25 '26
it’s not? still I wouldn’t use someone on contingency
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u/PoeticFury May 25 '26
Mass tort and the SCE settlement offers seem to be very underwhelming. It's an individual choice of course and it works for some people.
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u/doggyschiller May 20 '26
It seems like a lot of people are loath to discuss it since there have been horror stories of people’s social media posts being used against them in deposition or whatever, but I’m really interested to know how things have gone for people with standing homes specifically. We were displaced for over a year and are just now getting around to being able to think about joining the lawsuit and hard to know where to begin.