BREAKING: EFSN Just Filed to Intervene in State Farm Enforcement Proceeding
A historic first: seeking the right to conduct discovery, present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and participate in settlement discussions.
Survivors writing postcards to Insurance Commissioner Lara and Governor Newsom asking for accountability for State Farm and all insurers.
June 16, 2026
Dear friends,
BREAKING NEWS: EFSN Has Filed to Become an Intervenor in the State Farm Enforcement Proceeding
This morning, Every Fire Survivor's Network filed a petition to become a full intervenor and participant in the California Department of Insurance's enforcement proceeding against State Farm.
I am so proud of us!
I've heard from survivor groups across the country, going back decades, that State Farm's playbook is familiar: delay, deny, underpay. Wear survivors down until they give up.
That playbook has one Achilles heel:itt depends on survivors being isolated.
What makes the L.A. recovery different is that thousands of survivors organized.
Over the past 18 months, we've collected more than 1,600 firsthand accounts, documented patterns of misconduct, met with regulators, testified before elected officials, elevated survivor voices in the media, and brought what we found directly to the people responsible for oversight and accountability.
You did that.
Our press conferences. Our petitions. Our complaints. Our postcards. Our stories.
Together, they helped force a State Farm market conduct examination.
Last month, CDI closed that examination after finding 398 violations in just 220 State Farm wildfire claims. Then they proposed a $2 million penalty.
Two million dollars.
As I told The New York Times:
"This illegal conduct has been happening for 16 months. People have suffered needlessly. We have filed thousands of complaints with this department and it has been a black box. Now that they finally acknowledge the problem, we have a nominal fee of $2 million, while these companies have been profiteering this whole time."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/realestate/california-state-farm-fires-insurance.html
State Farm insures more than 20% of L.A. fire survivors. It’s also the insurer that generated more complaints than any other in the Department's files.
What State Farm gets away with, every insurer learns it can get away with.
That's why this matters. For the first time in California history, a wildfire survivor organization is seeking legal standing in an insurance enforcement proceeding.
If our petition is granted, EFSN will have the right to conduct discovery, present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, participate in settlement discussions, and advocate for remedies that help survivors rebuild and get home.
We are also asking that hearings be held here in Los Angeles, where the harm happened and where survivors can participate.
Our filing is epic. Read it here.
Later this summer, our insurer-by-insurer survivor survey will help guide our work across the entire insurance industry.
Meantime, join us Thursday.
THIS THURSDAY MORNING: Press Conference in the Palisades!
Whether or not you have State Farm, this enforcement proceeding matters to you.
What happens here will determine whether any insurer can commit illegal acts against survivors, and walk away with a slap on the wrist, a kiss on the cheek, and no real accountability. Come make history with us.
Thursday, June 18, at 8:30a. At Palisades High School
Everyone is welcome. Please share widely.
RSVP to attend here.
Read the Media Advisory here.
Media RSVP here.
A Special Invitation to State Farm’s Executive in Charge of the L.A. Recovery
Last month, as outcry over State Farm's claims handling reached a fever pitch, a press release emerged from the mothership in Bloomington, Illinois. Did they express contrition? Pledge to end the illegal conduct?
Child, please.
They announced a new VP for the L.A. recovery, a sharp-looking fellow named Axel Del Cid. Axel says his first priority is to listen to L.A. fire survivors. He just forgot to include his contact information.
We wanted to make it easy. So we sent him a letter inviting him to Thursday's press conference, where he'll find the very people he says he wants to hear from, all in one place.
Read our letter to Axel here.
In the coming days, follow along and join in the fun on socials here
THIS THURSDAY EVENING: Former Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones
Thursday is a big day, morning to night.
Session 2: Hear It From the Man Who Wrote the Law Thursday, June 18 | 7:00–8:00 PM Pacific | Free | 1,000 seats
The median rebuilding gap is $600,000 in Eaton and $1.2 million in the Palisades.
Most of us assumed: I didn't buy enough coverage. My fault.
But what if it isn't?
In 2011, then-Commissioner Dave Jones adopted a regulation requiring that replacement cost estimates reflect actual rebuilding costs. The industry fought it all the way to the California Supreme Court -- and lost 7-0. The regulation is still law. Did your estimate reflect what it would actually cost to rebuild? If not, that may have important legal implications.
Dave Jones joins us Thursday to explain what the regulation requires, why the industry fought it, and what it may mean for your claim. Also joining us: Michael Bidart of Shernoff Bidart Echeverria, one of California's leading insurance bad-faith attorneys, on how these issues are showing up in real cases.
Register for Session 2: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bdRTf85cQlON6o358qPkcg#/
Missed Session 1? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Susie Neilson and Megan Fan Munce of the SF Chronicle discussed BURNED -- how insurers used hidden algorithms to underinsure survivors.
Watch the Pulitzer webinar on demand: https://www.efsurvivors.net/expert-resources
Read the Pulitzer investigation on underinsurance: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2025/california-home-insurance-underinsured/
Session 3: Legal Strategies Survivors Need to Know Wednesday, June 24 | 7:00–8:00 PM Pacific | Free
Michelle Meyers of Singleton Schreiber and Brianna Strange of Strange LLP are both actively litigating underinsurance and wildfire recovery cases. Don't miss it.
Register for Session 3: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uhEvWy4nSteurpxWkkO5-g#/
After 18 months of showing up, this morning, we stopped asking.
We filed this.
Thursday morning, come stand with us in the Palisades as we make the case that survivors deserve a seat at the table.
Then Thursday evening, join us to learn your rights if you are underinsured. Former Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones will walk us through the law, what insurers are required to do, and what options may be available to survivors. Then we can have the conversation many of us have been waiting to have: whether, when, and how to take action.
The insurance industry's playbook for underpayments and underinsurance depends on survivors being isolated.
What makes Los Angeles different is that we’ve found each other.
And now we're stronger together than any of us could ever be alone.
See you Thursday!
Love,
Joy
The Every Fire Survivor's Network (EFSN) connects 10,000+ fire survivors and allies across Eaton, Palisades, Malibu, and Topanga. Together, we remove barriers and help families get home. Join us: efsurvivors.net
