WILDFIRE FAQs

Moon

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS IN WILDFIRE CASEs

Understanding Whether You Have a Case
Understanding Compensation & Types of Damages in California Wildfire Lawsuits
Evidence Collection
California Wildfire Experts
Insurance & How It Interacts With Your Claim
Cost, Fees & Hiring an Attorney
Lawsuit Structure & Process
Key Legal Concepts Affecting Wildfire Cases

Understanding Whether You Have a Case

Do I Have a Valid California Wildfire Claim?

You may have a valid claim if:

  • Your home, property, business, or personal belongings were damaged or destroyed in the wildfire
  • You incurred evacuation or displacement expenses
  • You suffered emotional distress as a result of the fire
  • You suffered a physical injury or the loss of a loved one
  • Your income or business operations were disrupted

You do not need to know the full extent of your damages before talking to an attorney. Many types of wildfire damage are hidden, including HVAC contamination, soil damage, structural heat damage, and smoke intrusion behind walls. We work with highly experienced experts trained in wildfire damage assessment who will evaluate your property thoroughly. Early insurance inspections often underestimate damage, so obtaining an independent evaluation is critical.

You can still file a claim for:

  • Smoke, soot, and ash damage
  • Partial burn damage
  • Loss of trees, landscaping, or fencing
  • Loss of use of your property
  • Evacuation-related expenses


Even minor damage can qualify for a wildfire lawsuit.  It’s important you speak with a wildfire attorney to understand your options. 

Yes. Renters have independent wildfire claims even if they do not own the structure. Renters can recover for:

  • Loss of personal property
  • Evacuation and displacement expenses
  • Emotional distress
  • Lost income
  • Tenant improvements (if any)


A renter’s claim is just as important as a homeowner’s claim and often includes significant financial and emotional losses.

Yes. Even without physical property damage, victims may recover for:

  • Mandatory evacuation
  • Loss of use of their home
  • Emotional distress
  • Lost income


Costs associated with displacement (lodging, food, transportation, etc.)
California law recognizes that the trauma and disruption of a wildfire evacuation can be substantial.

Understanding Compensation & Types of Damages in California Wildfire Lawsuits

When fire victims pursue a wildfire lawsuit, there are many types of damages they may recover. Our experienced wildfire litigation attorneys expertly guide individuals and businesses through every step of wildfire litigation, ensuring full compensation for losses caused by utility companies or other responsible parties. Read more

Yes. Many survivors experience long-term or delayed health impacts, including Post-traumatic stress disorder, respiratory issues, anxiety disorders, and depression. California law allows victims to recover for:

  • Future psychological counseling
  • Ongoing medical treatment
  • Medication
  • Long-term health monitoring


The goal of a wildfire lawsuit is to ensure you have the resources needed for complete physical and emotional recovery.

Emotional distress is one of the most common—and most significant—components of wildfire damages. Your claim can be supported by:

  • Your own testimony about fear, evacuation, trauma, and ongoing impacts
  • Photos or videos of the evacuation or the fire
  • Descriptions of disrupted daily life, sleep issues, anxiety, or grief
  • Therapy or medical records (if you have them, but they are not required)


Moon Law uses established legal methods to present emotional distress damages clearly and credibly.

Evidence Collection

Useful evidence includes:

  • Photos or videos of your property (before and after the fire)
  • Insurance policies and claim documents
  • Lists of damaged or lost items
  • Receipts for evacuation, repairs, or replacement costs
  • Personal or business income records (if applicable)
  • Fire department records and government reports 


Consult with a Moon Law attorney as soon as possible because we can help you build a strong claim for compensation, and work with you to preserve evidence that will help strengthen your case. 

California Wildfire Experts

To support and maximize the damages we seek on behalf of our clients, we work with a team of highly respected wildfire experts. Our experts include economists, arborists, foresters, appraisers, forensic accountants, as well as experts in reconstruction costs, remediation, infrastructure, and real estate. Read more

Insurance & How It Interacts With Your Claim

Even when a wildfire victim has insurance coverage, pursuing a lawsuit is still critical to securing full and fair compensation. Insurance policies—whether homeowner’s, renter’s, or commercial—are typically limited in scope and may not cover the full extent of losses suffered in a wildfire. Policy limits, exclusions, depreciation, and deductibles often leave victims with significant out-of-pocket expenses. A wildfire lawsuit allows victims to seek the true value of their damages from the parties responsible for causing the wildfire, rather than relying solely on what an insurer is obligated to pay under a contract.

Additionally, insurance only covers certain categories of loss. Many wildfire victims suffer damages that are not recoverable through insurance at all, such as emotional distress and mental anguish, as well as wrongful death and personal injury. A lawsuit can address these broader harms and provide compensation that reflects the total impact of the fire on a person’s life, livelihood, and wellbeing.

A lawsuit can also help victims recover funds for the future costs of rebuilding and restoring property—expenses that typically exceed the initial estimates provided by insurance adjusters. Wildfire recovery is a long process; costs often increase over time due to labor shortages, inflation, and changes in building codes. Holding the responsible utility or entity accountable through litigation ensures that victims have access to resources that match the long-term reality of their recovery needs, not just the limited short-term payouts offered by insurers.

Finally, pursuing a wildfire lawsuit does not jeopardize a victim’s insurance claim. In many cases, insurance companies themselves have the right to seek reimbursement from negligent parties, and a victim’s lawsuit works in parallel to ensure accountability. Litigation is often the only avenue to obtain justice, uncover wrongdoing, and prevent future disasters by incentivizing safer practices. For all these reasons, a wildfire lawsuit remains necessary and valuable—even for those who have insurance coverage.

No. None of the insurance proceeds you receive will be paid to your attorney.  Rather, your attorney will only receive a share of any judgment or settlement they achieve on your behalf in a wildfire lawsuit.

No. You can hire an attorney before you speak to insurance adjusters, and many victims choose to do so. Insurance adjusters work for the insurance company—not for you. Working with an attorney early in the process helps ensure that:

  • Your statements are accurately presented
  • Your claim is fully documented
  • Your damages are not undervalued


Moon Law can assist with your insurance claim while also preparing your wildfire lawsuit.

Cost, Fees & Hiring an Attorney

To be clear, there are no upfront costs and you only pay us if we secure a settlement or judgment. If we don’t, you pay us nothing. This is called a “contingency fee” agreement.

Very little. You may be asked to provide information and documents, but your involvement is typically minimal.

Nearly all wildfire victims never have to appear in court. Moon Law handles all aspects of the investigation and fact-gathering, litigation, and settlement negotiations.

Lawsuit Structure & Process

If you file a wildfire lawsuit with Moon Law, you will have your own individual lawsuit. This is because every victim experiences different losses, such as the following:

  • Total home destruction vs. partial property damage
  • Personal injury vs. no bodily injury
  • Lost income, which varies widely
  • Evacuation expenses
  • Emotional distress
  • Business interruption
  • Unique insurance coverage issues


Because these losses vary dramatically, a single damages formula cannot fairly compensate all victims, which class actions usually require. 

In California, wildfire litigation against utility companies is typically handled as a “mass tort,” which is a legal structure used when many people are harmed by the same event but suffer different types and degrees of losses. Fire victims share common liability issues—for example, whether a utility’s equipment sparked the fire or whether the company acted negligently—but their damages vary widely.

One homeowner may lose an entire residence, while another suffers only smoke damage; some victims face personal injuries, emotional trauma, business losses, or evacuation costs. Because of this high degree of variation, wildfire claims cannot be treated as a class action, which requires that all plaintiffs have similar injuries and that a few representatives can speak for the entire group. Mass torts preserve each plaintiff’s right to pursue individualized compensation while still allowing coordinated litigation on shared issues. This makes the litigation much more efficient and cost effective.

In California wildfire lawsuits, a legal requirement—known as the statute of limitations—sets a strict deadline for victims to file claims, making timely action essential to preserving their right to compensation. 

Generally, individuals have two years from the date of the fire to pursue claims for personal injury or property damage, though certain claims—such as inverse condemnation against public entities or actions based on negligence discovered later—may have different timelines or exceptions. In addition, when the defendant is a government entity—such as a city or county—victims must first file a government claim within just six months of the loss, and only after that claim is denied can a lawsuit be filed, subject to additional deadlines. 

These timelines are critical: once they pass, victims may permanently lose their right to compensation, no matter how strong their case may be. Because the aftermath of a wildfire can be overwhelming and evidence can degrade or disappear quickly, understanding the statute of limitations helps victims ensure they gather documentation, identify responsible parties, and file their claims before their legal rights expire. Acting promptly also increases the opportunity to participate in broader litigation efforts, such as mass torts or settlement programs, which may offer additional avenues for recovery. In short, it’s critical you speak with a wildfire attorney to ensure you understand these deadlines.

This is a difficult question to answer because the duration of a wildfire lawsuit depends on:

  • The size and scope of the fire
  • How many parties are responsible for causing the fire
  • Whether the liable parties accept responsibility earlier on
  • The court’s schedule
  • Whether the responsible party files bankruptcy


For these reasons, in some cases, the process can be as short as a few months, while other cases may take a year or more. Working with an experienced wildfire attorney can help expedite the process and protect your rights. 

Key Legal Concepts Affecting Wildfire Cases

Under California law, inverse condemnation is a constitutional doctrine that allows property owners to recover compensation when their private property is damaged or taken for public use by a public entity—or, in certain circumstances, by privately owned utilities performing a public function. The core principle is that when an entity with the power of eminent domain causes property damage through its infrastructure or operations, it must compensate the affected property owners regardless of negligence. The focus is on causation and whether the damaged property was effectively “taken or damaged for public use,” not on whether the utility acted reasonably.

In wildfire litigation, Moon Law routinely invokes inverse condemnation against electric utilities such as PG&E and Southern California Edison. If a utility’s equipment is found to have caused or contributed to a wildfire, utilities may be held strictly liable for the resulting property damage under inverse condemnation, even when they complied with all safety regulations. Courts have justified applying inverse condemnation to privately owned utilities because they serve an essential public purpose and can spread the costs of wildfire losses across their customer base or through rate-setting mechanisms. As a result, inverse condemnation has become a powerful tool for wildfire attorneys, such as Moon Law, and it provides a straightforward path to liability and compensation without the burden of proving negligence. 

The California Wildfire Fund was created in 2019 after a series of catastrophic fires linked to powerlines and other utility equipment. Lawmakers recognized a serious problem: the cost of a single major wildfire can be so high that a utility company might not survive financially. If a utility went bankrupt, victims could be left waiting years for payment—or might never be fully compensated at all.

To address this, the state set up the California Wildfire Fund as a financial “backstop.”

  • Major utilities and California ratepayers pay into the Fund each year.
  • The money is set aside to help cover certain wildfire claims when utility equipment is to blame.
  • The Fund is overseen by a state council to help ensure the money is managed and used appropriately.


In simple terms: the Fund is there so that when a covered wildfire is caused by a participating utility, there is a pool of money available to help pay for the damage.

The Fund has three main goals:

  1. Make sure money is there for victims: When a utility-caused wildfire destroys homes, businesses, and communities, the losses can reach billions of dollars. Without a safety net, a utility might run out of money before victims are fully paid. The Wildfire Fund reduces the chance that victims are left without compensation simply because the utility cannot afford it. 

  2. Keep the power system stable: California depends on its major utilities to keep the lights on. If a utility collapses financially under wildfire costs, it can create chaos for both victims and the broader electrical grid. The Fund is designed to help utilities stay solvent so they can both pay claims and continue operating. 

  3. Push utilities to improve safety: Utilities must meet strict wildfire safety standards to remain eligible for Fund coverage. If they don’t follow state-approved safety plans, they risk losing access to the Fund. That creates a strong incentive for utilities to upgrade equipment, trim vegetation, and take other steps to reduce fire risk.

If you’re suing a utility company or bringing a claim for wildfire losses, the California Wildfire Fund can matter in several important ways:

  1. Stronger financial backing behind your case: The Fund does not pay victims directly. Instead, it can reimburse participating utilities for some of the costs of paying wildfire claims. For you, that means there is a larger, more stable source of money behind the utility. When liability is proven, there is a better chance that you will be fully compensated for all of your damages. 

  2. Less risk of the utility going bankrupt: In the past, some utilities facing massive wildfire liability turned to bankruptcy court. That can slow down claims and reduce what victims ultimately recover. By helping utilities manage wildfire costs, the Fund is meant to reduce the chances of another drawn-out bankruptcy that leaves victims in limbo. 

  3. More realistic settlement possibilities: Because the utility knows it has the potential support of the Fund (once it meets its own payment obligations and legal requirements), it may be more able or willing to discuss fair settlement numbers. That doesn’t guarantee a good offer—but it can improve the practical chances of resolving claims without endless delay. 

  4. The Fund does not replace your legal rights: It’s crucial to understand that the California Wildfire Fund is not a shortcut or a direct claim process for victims. Rather, victims must still pursue a wildfire lawsuit against the responsible utility company. In short, the Fund is there to help make sure that when victims win or settle their cases, there is money available to pay what is owed.