A group of owners affected by the January Forest Fires is demanding the main operators of California insurers, including the largest state farm in the state, for allegedly violating the laws of antimonopoly and unfair competition of California.
The demands follow others with respect to the management of the insurers of the sequelae of the fires of Eaton and Palisades, even against Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the Fair of California (specifically on smoke damage), The State Besieged Insurance plan or last resort.
The group’s complaint and the jury trial filed on Saturday at the Superior Court of Los Angeles claim that in a “nefarious conspiracy”, the main insurers conspired to “eliminate competition between them”, thus by the Totionnivers Fair Plan. “Forc.” Forcing.
The same day, the lawyers filed a separate collective claim that alleges the same.
“Insurance is a product that the owners hope to need, but they trust for the tranquility in normal times and for the critical help of reconstruction after a catastrophe,” Michael J. Bidart of Shernoff Bidart Echeverria LLP, one of the law firms, said the signatures, the firms said. statement. “The complaints claim that, when collapsed to push the plaintiffs as many as they are the fair plan, the defendants have reaped the benefits of the high premiums while depriving the owners of housing who were ready and capable of buying finger of the foot and capable and capable of buying, and capable of buying tees.”
The representatives of the main insurance companies meet regularly to “discuss that we would give to be market issues,” including the administration of the Just Plan, said Jamie Court, president and president of the Consumer Clock Board. “This was clearly a concerted attempt of the entire industry to push people in high -risk areas to lower benefits policies, and at the same time continue to collect higher premiums of all others.”
The fair plan was established following the 1965 Watts riots, after the insurers fleeing highlighted the need for a new type of operator. The objective was to provide an insurance option for California owners who live in places that open market carriers refused to cover themselves in vulnerable communities to forest fires.
The Just Plan has its own reservations, but California licensed property insurers, who must pay claims when the fair extends through their funds. The plan has proven to be fundamental due to increasingly disastrous fires in the state, even after the 2018 camp fire that destroyed the city of Paradise and Insurance Cost $ 12.5 billion.
However, with many insurers canceling the coverage of nationals in fire risk areas, the fair plan has been overcome. The number of fair plan policies has shot from approximately 200,000 residential insured in 2020 to almost 560,000 to March 2025. The plan has estimated that it will lose about $ 4 billion dollars in which they drain the
In response, Lara signed a policy Well in place Last year Which allows the fair plan to evaluate its member companies $ 1 billion for residential claims. These private insurers can temporarily add surcharges to premiums paid by their own insured to recover 50% of that, or $ 500,000.
These increases in premiums apply to housing owners everywhere in California, not only in fire -prone areas. That said, Lara must approach those surcharges separately.
The opponents of politics call it “Rescue” of the industry Than the burden of consumers.
“The house houses throughout the state should not be in the hook of Los Angeles fires because insurance companies left those neighborhoods and threw home in the fair plan”, Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog He told The Times In January.
The new demands allege that the main insurers of the State, those required by the Law of the Fair, colluded together to cancel the plans, leaving Homewers under fair insufficiency, which has higher premiums than most plans at the limit or $ $. The plaintiffs look for three times the damage that each one has suffered.
“This is exactly the type of action that should happen so that we inflate what is clearly a behavior similar to the poster,” said the court.
From the publication, the representatives of State Farm and Allstate did not respond to the requests for comments.
Hilary McLean, spokesman for the Just Plan, told The Times that “although California’s fair plan is not appointed in these demands, the fair plan does not comment on active litigation.”
Gabriel Sánchez, who represents Lara’s office, said in an email: “The insurance department is not involved in this matter as part and cannot comment on the demand. Our approach is, and will always be the consumers of California.”
Earlier this month, State Farm Propose an emergency rate increase of 17% – An initial application of 22% to state officials In February, he said that it is necessary to “help stabilize the financial position of State Farm General” and prevent the carrier from having to “more constant” his ability to provide home insurance in California.
Meanwhile, many who lost their homes in Los Angeles fires are Asking for formal government investigation Or the main insurance suppliers, claiming that delays and denials have kept them in strict financial and housing limbo.
The Times staff writer, Laurence Darmiento, contributed to this report.
