Wrongful Death and Lost Homes and Businesses: What can you sue for after a fire?

There are two potential sources of wildfires: natural causes such as lightning strikes and human-caused fires. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, 80 percent of wildfires in Indian Country are human-caused and result in the loss of 190 structures annually.

Human-caused fires often begin as a result of careless actions such as:

• Failing to completely extinguish a campfire.
• Lit cigarettes thrown on the ground or out the window of a moving vehicle.
• Individuals or businesses burning trash, ditches, fields, or slash piles.
• Arson and illegal or unauthorized burning.
• Issues involving vehicles, including aircraft or car accidents, flat tires, malfunctioning brakes, or vehicle parts dragging along the roadway while the vehicle is in use.
• Individuals playing with matches, lighters, or fireworks.
• Activities that involve shooting ammo or exploding targets.
• Defective power lines or electrical transformers.
• Blasting operations.

When someone’s negligence leads to a fire that causes injuries, death, or property damage, the fire victims can pursue legal action and seek compensation.

Individuals and businesses must take reasonable actions to protect others from harm in various circumstances, including avoiding actions that will lead to a fire. When someone’s negligence leads to a fire that results in physical harm or property destruction, the fire victims are permitted to seek compensation for the expenses and impacts of the harm they suffer. Here is a look at the type of claims that are likely to arise due to a human-caused wildfire.

Property Damage Claims

Property damage is the most common type of damage incurred in a wildfire, with thousands of structures—including homes and businesses—destroyed each year in California alone. According to a recent report, an estimated 776,000 homes are at extreme risk fire destruction. California’s major metropolitan areas make up most of the locations with the most homes at extreme risk.

Those areas include:

• Los Angeles, where 121,589 households face high to extreme wildfire risk.
• Riverside, where there is high to extreme wildfire risk for 108,787 households
• San Diego, with 75,096 households categorized as high to extreme risk.
• Sacramento, with 68,056 categorized as having high to extreme risk of wildfire destruction.
• San Francisco, where 32,174 homes are at high to extreme risk.
• Truckee, with 31,987 homes at high to extreme risk.
• Oxnard, where 19,555 homes are in areas with high to extreme wildfire risk.
• Redding, with 21,057 homes at high to extreme wildfire risk.

Individuals who have lost their homes or businesses due to a wildfire resulting from natural causes, such as lightning, can generally seek coverage for their property losses through a claim against their homeowner’s or business owner’s insurance policy. The compensation you can receive includes the costs of rebuilding or repairing your home, remediating smoke damage, replacing destroyed outbuildings, replacing your belongings—including your vehicle— and providing lodging until your home is livable.

Business owners who have had their office or store destroyed by a wildfire can seek coverage of the cost of replacing or repairing office space, equipment, and inventory, and—depending on your policy—can also seek coverage of the additional expenses incurred as a result of an interruption to your business.

If a fire investigation determines that the fire resulted from human carelessness, you can seek compensation from a liability insurance policy held by the at-fault party.

The insurance provider who services this policy will review the claim and respond in one of three ways:

• By accepting that their insured was liable for the damage and processing the claim for payment.
• Offering to settle the claim out of court for less than its established value.
• Denying the claim and providing a reason for the denial in writing to the claimant.

If the insurance provider fails to compensate the claim, you can file property damage lawsuit. California has a three-year statute of limitations on such claims.

Personal Injury Claims

When someone suffers serious injuries due to a wildfire caused by the negligence of an individual or company, they can seek compensation through the personal injury claims process. Like with property damage claims, the personal injury claims process generally begins with a claim filed against the at-fault party’s insurance provider.

If the insurance company doesn’t agree to sufficiently pay the claim, it can be filed in court as a lawsuit. The statute of limitations on personal injury claims in California is typically two years from the date of the injury.

The types of compensation available through a personal injury claim related to a wildfire include:

• All medical expenses for treatment of the injuries incurred due to the fire.
• Lost wages from missed work due to the injuries.
• Loss of future earning capacity if the injuries result in permanent disabilities that impair the ability to work and earn an income.
• Property damage incurred in the wildfire.
• Non-economic damages for the injury’s impacts, such as physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and more.

Wrongful Death Claims

When an individual dies due to a wildfire caused by a careless or reckless individual or company, the deceased’s family members may be able to benefit from a wrongful death claim. Losing a loved one in such circumstances is devastating. While no amount of money can truly make up for the loss of life, a wrongful death lawsuit aims to provide some measure of justice and financial support to grieving family members.

In California, the following individuals can typically file a wrongful death claim:

• The spouse or domestic partner of the decedent.
• The decedent’s children.
• If the decedent’s children are deceased, their grandchildren can file the claim.
• If there is no surviving spouse, children or grandchildren, then other family members who would be entitled to the decedent’s property through intestate succession laws can pursue a wrongful death case.

There is a two-year statute of limitations to file a wrongful death lawsuit in California, starting from the date of the decedent’s death. Claimants can seek compensation for various damages stemming from their loss, such as:

• The loss of financial support, services, and future income the decedent would have likely provided if they had lived.
• Loss of gifts and benefits the decedent gave to family.
• Loss of the decedent’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, guidance and moral support.
• The surviving spouse or partner’s loss of intimacy and consortium.

Wildfires permanently alter the lives of the individuals and communities they impact, leaving people without their homes, belongings, and businesses or even dealing with serious injuries and unspeakable loss. A California wildfire lawyer can provide several services to assist those impacted by wildfires to obtain the compensation they need to move forward with their lives.

 

These services can include:

• A free case evaluation, which is a no-obligation conversation with an attorney where a claimant can talk about their case, explore the legal options available to them, and learn more about the attorney’s role in that process.
• An investigation of the details of the fire to determine who was liable for causing it and the type of insurance resources the at-fault party has that can provide compensation.
• The determination of a value to the claim, which is how much the claimant is seeking for the expenses and impacts of their injury. In personal injury claims, the claim’s value is typically not determined until the claimant has reached maximum medical improvement, which is when the claimant’s physical injury has stabilized, and they are not likely to make any additional recovery progress, even if treatments continue.
• Submitting the claim with the at-fault party’s insurer and maintaining contact with the insurance claims adjuster to negotiate a settlement that fairly compensates the claimant.
• Providing the claimant with the information they need to make decisions about their claim that reflect their best interests. Attorneys cannot make decisions for the claimant, but they can provide guidance to help them understand how their claim is valued, what a fair settlement for their claim would look like and the risks and benefits of filing a lawsuit.
• Filing the appropriate type of lawsuit in civil court within the state’s statute of limitations.
• Gathering the evidence and medical documentation needed to prove liability, expenses, and impacts.
• Attending all court-ordered hearings, responding to motions, and filing motions in preparation for trial.
• Litigation services.
• Assistance collecting compensation owed to the claimant as a result of a negotiated settlement or court award.