EFSN sues as CDI and State Farm move the enforcement case forward while survivors are denied a hearing on their right to participate.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2026
LOS ANGELES - Every Fire Survivor’s Network (EFSN) has sued California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the California Department of Insurance (CDI), asking a court to stop CDI and State Farm from resolving or materially changing an enforcement case while the survivors whose evidence helped trigger the investigation are denied a hearing on their right to participate.
CDI examined 220 randomly selected State Farm claims from the Eaton and Palisades fires and identified 398 violations in 114 claims. They included delays in investigating and paying claims, repeated adjuster changes, low settlement offers, improper depreciation, misrepresentations about policy provisions and systemic claims-handling failures.
State Farm disputes whether the violations amount to a broader “general business practice.” EFSN has evidence directly relevant to that defense: firsthand accounts from more than 1,600 State Farm policyholders describing many of the same practices CDI found in its sample.
EFSN petitioned to intervene on June 16. Nearly three months later, CDI has not provided a decisionmaker to hear the petition.
Yet the enforcement case is moving forward. CDI has served State Farm with charges and discovery. State Farm has responded. CDI says the two sides are in “early discovery.” EFSN’s lawsuit states that it is informed and believes CDI and State Farm are also privately negotiating a potential settlement.
“Survivors should not have to fight our own insurance regulator just to exercise our basic legal rights,” said Joy Chen, Executive Director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network and an Eaton Fire survivor. “Yet State Farm is inside the process while the people whose claims and evidence helped expose these practices are being kept out.”
State Farm has a seat at the table. Survivors are fighting to get one.
California law allows people whose legal rights may be substantially affected by an administrative case to seek intervention. EFSN says its members meet those requirements. They include State Farm policyholders with open or disputed claims whose recovery and legal rights could be affected by the outcome.
EFSN is seeking access to evidence, the ability to present evidence, test State Farm’s claims, cross-examine witnesses and participate in settlement discussions.
CDI says it will oppose EFSN’s petition when a judge is assigned. But CDI has refused EFSN’s request to seek assignment of that judge.
“Fire survivors helped build the record that brought State Farm’s claims practices into the light,” said Pamela Pressley, senior staff attorney for Consumer Watchdog. “They should have their petition to participate decided by a neutral decisionmaker, not be locked outside the room while State Farm and the Department negotiate over potential penalties.”
State Farm says isolated violations. EFSN has first-hand accounts from 1,600+ policyholders.
At a June 18 press conference at Palisades Charter High School announcing EFSN’s petition to intervene, survivors described the same claims practices at the heart of CDI’s case.
Marjan Rajabi, a State Farm customer for 23 years who lost her Palisades home, said she was passed among seven adjusters. “I have a full-time job, but after the fire, dealing with State Farm became a second full-time job,” Rajabi said. “Each new person meant starting over, more confusion, more delays.”
Diane Brigham, a State Farm customer for more than 40 years who also lost her Palisades home, prepared an inventory of 8,153 lost items and repeatedly submitted documentation. “The delays, opaque calculations, and antiquated systems appear to be designed to confuse and wear out customers like me so that we give up and settle for less,” Brigham said.
Their testimony goes directly to the question State Farm disputes: whether the violations CDI found were isolated problems or evidence of a broader business practice.
CDI could settle with State Farm before survivors ever get a seat at the table
While EFSN waits for its petition to be heard, CDI and State Farm can continue exchanging evidence, narrowing issues and negotiating a potential resolution. If the case is narrowed or settled first, survivors could win the right to participate only after the decisions that matter have already been made.
Those decisions could affect whether State Farm is found to have engaged in a broader illegal business practice, whether claims should be reopened or corrected, what State Farm must do for policyholders and what penalties it faces.
EFSN is asking the court to ensure its petition is heard before those decisions are made.
This is not the first time CDI has fought survivor participation in a State Farm proceeding
Last summer, during State Farm’s $1.2 billion rate case, CDI sought to move pre-hearing proceedings online, citing heightened security concerns that included “wildfire claimants in the LA area who are expressing frustration with claims handling experiences,” alongside the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and a shooting outside NFL headquarters. State Farm supported CDI’s concerns.
Administrative Law Judge Karl Seligman rebuked CDI’s attempt to restrict public participation, finding no imminent risk of harm and affirming the public interest in open proceedings: “both the parties and the public share a vested interest in ensuring that transparency and fairness are upheld.”
Now, in another State Farm proceeding, CDI is again fighting survivor participation.
Hear survivors before the case is settled
EFSN’s lawsuit does not ask the Superior Court to decide whether State Farm violated California law or to grant EFSN intervention.
It asks the court to require CDI to provide a neutral decisionmaker who can promptly hear EFSN’s petition. Until that happens, EFSN is asking the court to prevent CDI and State Farm from settling, dismissing, narrowing or otherwise materially changing the case in ways that could undermine survivors’ ability to participate.
The stakes became even clearer on Aug. 31, when Los Angeles County separately sued State Farm over its handling of Eaton and Palisades fire claims after EFSN provided hundreds of policyholder complaints and connected prosecutors directly with survivors.
Los Angeles County heard survivors’ evidence and sued State Farm.
At CDI, State Farm is inside the process while survivors are suing their own regulator to be heard.
EFSN is represented by Singleton Schreiber and Consumer Watchdog.
Now EFSN is building the evidence to hold every insurer accountable
Survivors collecting evidence is what makes this accountability possible. EFSN has now launched the L.A. Fire Insurance Survey to document survivors’ experiences across every insurer and hold every insurer accountable. All responses will be anonymized and released only in aggregate form, so no individual survivor or household will be identified. We are inviting every Eaton and Palisades household to take part at FireSurvey.org.
Background and Source Materials
Read EFSN’s lawsuit:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/67f5687fc4ea480d5d201fe5/t/6a9b43a8525073118b2102a0/1788560298867/082126+EFSN+Writ.pdf
Read the Los Angeles Times on EFSN’s fight to join the State Farm enforcement case:
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-06-18/january-2025-wildfire-victims-seek-tougher-penalties-against-state-farm-over-claims-handling
Watch Palisades survivors testify about State Farm’s claims practices at EFSN’s June 18 press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvTym2-mSvQ
Read about Los Angeles County’s lawsuit against State Farm:
https://lacounty.gov/2026/08/31/los-angeles-county-sues-state-farm-for-unfair-business-practices-in-handling-2025-wildfire-claims/
Photos for media use:
Photos from EFSN’s June Palisades press conference may be freely used by journalists without attribution:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UCCdWzieJFCMaavqjGJhAn7wM_pQsFt_?usp=sharing
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Every Fire Survivor’s Network (EFSN) is a non-profit organization representing 10,000+ survivors and allies of the Eaton and Palisades fires. We connect survivors to one another and trusted resources, amplify survivor voices, and help unlock the funds families are owed so they can get home. Learn more at efsurvivors.net.
Contacts:
Joy Chen | Executive Director | Every Fire Survivor’s Network | joy.chen@efsurvivors.net
Michelle Meyers | Partner | Singleton Schreiber | mmeyers@singletonschreiber.com
Will Pletcher | Litigation Director | Consumer Watchdog | will@consumerwatchdog.org