After the Ashes: A Beautiful Altadena Podcast

Episode 9: Insured & Burned – Who Pays, Who Profits, and What You Should Know

• Shawna Dawson Beer

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In this episode, we dig into the tough realities of insurance in a post-fire California. With the state’s CFP (California FAIR Plan) already insolvent before the fires, private insurers pulling out, and premiums skyrocketing, we’re all likely headed toward layered coverage — think homeowner's + earthquake + flood-style plans — even for basic fire protection. It's a shifting landscape, and homeowners need to be informed now, not later.

We also break down subrogation — what it means when your insurer gets paid back from any SCE-related settlement — and take a hard look at Southern California Edison’s direct settlement offer currently being presented to fire survivors.

 👉 Whether or not this offer is right for you depends entirely on your personal circumstances. While better than expected in some areas, it still leaves many behind — especially:

  • Homeowners with standing but damaged homes
  • Those with business, economic and personal injury losses
  • And the insured folks who may see very little after subrogation, legal fees, and taxes

As co-host Shawna Dawson Beer puts it: 

If this is what they’re offering to make you go away, imagine what they might offer if you make it clear you’ll go all the way to trial. If you can wait, wait. If you can’t, don’t. But either way consult a trusted attorney about your case, not the internet, a spreadsheet, a group, or ChatGPT. 


This week we’re shouting out one of Altadena’s gems — @miyaonlake. Owned by fire survivor David Tewasart, who also runs Sticky Rice, Moon Rabbit and The Goldfish (the old Hi Hat on York). Recently named one of LA’s Top 15 Thai Restaurants by the LA Times, find handwritten menus, plant-based Tuesdays, and some of the best Thai fried chicken in the city. Visit them at 2470 N Lake Ave — right next to another community favorite, @thewellrock, owned by locals Jesse and Sarah.

Let’s keep going. Tune in and stay activated.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to After the Ashes, the beautiful Altadina podcast that breaks down legislation and recovery after urban wildfire. I'm your co-host, Shauna Dawson Beer here, here with Steven Sachs.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, Shauna.

SPEAKER_01:

And this is episode nine that we titled Insured and Insured and Burned, because you know I do love the piffy titles, man. I love them. Insured and burned, who pays, who profits, and what should you know? Um, so today we're gonna be talking about a few things, including insurance, everyone's favorite topic to be sick of. Subrogation, what the is that? And we're gonna delve into the SCE offer plan a bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. So, Steve, do you want to kick us off with a little insurance chat before we delve into the SCE offer and state of play on that front?

SPEAKER_00:

For insurance, I mean, I think everybody in Altadena knows the questions about insurance and the troubles that they've been having to try to get paid by insurance. Um, I'm sure, Shauna, you have some horror stories.

SPEAKER_01:

Adjuster number 10. Yeah. 10 months, adjuster number 10. Thanks, State Farm. It's been so much fun with you, you fucking terrible neighbor.

SPEAKER_00:

I um we've had our own experiences with USAA. I mean, you know, it's not as bad as a lot of others, but nevertheless, I mean, it's been a struggle to try to get this sorted out. Um, and we're a survivor, so I mean, we're ours is smoke damage based, and there's a lot of folks that are going to be dealing with that side of it as well. Um, we know that there are big advocates out in the community that are really, you know, trying to bring insurance accountability at the state level. Uh, you know, and those are those are tremendous efforts, and thank you for doing that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know. I especially I I think because you mentioned smoke damage, and for those who are listening who are not necessarily in Altadina or familiar with the what we have been facing, um, I have been I have maintained from the first week after the fire that those who had homes still standing that were that were either, you know, smoke and um contaminant damaged or you know who had some burn damage but not total damage were going to be in worse shape than those of us who had very clear total losses. And unfortunately, that has very much become the case. There are situations, there were examples following the Woolsey fire where people, despite insurance nightmares, legislation nightmares, money nightmares, all of it. People were able who had a total loss to rebuild their homes and get moved back in before many of their neighbors with homestanding that were damaged and required significant remediation because it took them so long with attorneys to fight their insurance companies to actually get that done for them.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I totally believe that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's it's unbelievable. Yeah, I you know, and it's not that anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

There's there were no winners here is the point. It's it is, and it's you know, you expect insurance to be there when you need it most because that's what the commercials tell you, but you know, in reality, you have to understand that it's a business too. So I don't agree with it. I'm just saying that this is we're we're feeling the the ends of it. I I think the hard part is is I know that having gone through auto accidents, how much more simple the auto accident process is than a home. And you know, you've heard the stories about you know, if you have flooding and things like that, yeah, that that's uh that's also a problem, but I gotta tell you, you know, this has been something I don't think any of us have really expected what it is. And you know, I I think too uh this misplacement of insurance is also an interesting conversation, but not for today necessarily. But while you know, insurance, why you know, fire insurance really was intended to if your house burned because you got a kitchen fire or somehow some electrical problem occurred and your house burned, it was never for the confl of conflagration that we have here. And I don't think any of us were adequately insured, or very few of us were, because you know, in a sense, it's like going to a GP when you need something much more specialized in terms of like you know, a doctor or something. And I think that we've learned a lot from this, unfortunately, and this is a very horrible way to learn from it.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, anyway. It's true. I mean, I think you know, ultimately, and this is something else we've discussed a lot in the group, like everyone is uninsured underinsured.

SPEAKER_00:

I have a buddy who overinsured and he was very proud of that.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what?

SPEAKER_00:

Good for him, because he's like the I never would have thought of it, but you know, there's he's on his lone island right now, and good for him. And I mean it's it's it's something none of us have ever thought about.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. But now we do. So if you're listening and your home has not burned down or been damaged or destroyed by fire, flood, other act of God or active utility, um, make sure that you do check your coverages and understand them and what the limits are and what all the little hidden bits are, and and also, I mean, I'm not gonna get too deep into this, but you know, make sure that you have replacement coverage. Uh, that's critical, a replacement value. So um, there's just so many little nuances. But I was gonna say that ultimately everyone is underinsured when the cost to rebuild is conservatively six to eight hundred dollars a square foot. There are some people who are still being told they can pull it off for$350,$400, but whether or not that ends up being real and what the quality of construction is for that and what the corners cut are for that, you know, I mean, who knows? And I don't want to uh malign and say that, you know, it's just impossible, and everyone who builds at that uh price is going to have a some par job. But I think the point is that it is more the exception than what is going to be the rule when you have in LA County more than 20,000 homes that need to be built, built simultaneously. And, you know, we have workers who were terrified to leave their homes because of the color of their skin and whether or not they're going to be targeted and picked up by ice or God knows what. And I say God knows what because who knows what those hoodlums behind masks are with their license plates covered up. But you know, it's it's scary times out there. So, and this is just very real stuff that that we as a community and are tackling.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I think you know, another point that I thought about as I'm driving around and looking at Al Tadena and you know, realizing not every home is a flat lot either. And you know, when a lot of these homes were built, uh retaining walls and those requirements were a lot more lax than they are today. Right. And so you know we we have no idea what I mean the the the scale and scope of this is going to be very different than I think many people understand. And I think that's the thing with insurance is that we just expected, oh, if I have a kitchen fire, I've got coverage for that, not my town burned down.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So But I think as I say, on the headache side, for anyone who's ever had water damage, they know what we're experiencing.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I've heard the horror stories there too.

SPEAKER_01:

It's true because um insurance, it's like getting any kind of water damage unless it was just like the pipe burst and the damage happened immediately, right now in the moment, and I can document that and prove it, that's covered. Virtually any other water damage is defined as it's a fabulous uh term that anyone who's been through this will know, seepage. It's defined as seepage and look into your policy. Seepage is not covered, kind of like earthquake is not covered. So we have to carry separate insurance for that. And, you know, so on and so forth, which gets to what we've been talking about, Steve, is like, you know, again, I don't think we need to belabor what's happening with insurance and insurance claims right now because there are a lot of people covering this topic and covering it in depth and covering it well, and because we have been talking about it, dealing with it, and living at it ad nauseum for so many months at this point. But it does take us to the conversation about what happens going forward. Well, right?

SPEAKER_00:

This is and and that you're you're we were thinking the same thing because this is something I've been advocating to a lot of people is that we need to think about what not just us, but a lot of other folks, and I know people have talked about it, and again, yesterday we talked a lot about talking about things and not solving things, but we're gonna have to figure out what this type of insurance is going to look like because people aren't gonna be able to rebuild, they're not gonna be able to get mortgages, et cetera, if they can't insure the property and insure their assets.

SPEAKER_01:

And and we know right now, so as it is now, for a lot a number of people in our community, if you happen to be um someone who was in a certain you know street or location based on a somewhat arbitrary map of fire hazard, um, you were relegated to something called CFB, the California Fair Plan, which is the state's insurer of last resort. The problem is that the last resort has become the you know uh primary primary resort for too many. And, you know, and it it prior to this fire, it was on the brink of insolvency. There were a number of articles written about this and studies done and and data drops dumped because uh we know that it's been it's been used, abused, and it now cannot pay. And I know this because you know, we have friends who are in this boat and it's a nightmare, you know, on so many levels. I mean, we can't even begin to get into the number of people whose insurance companies had dropped them last year at the end of the calendar year. The letters hadn't arrived yet, they were automatically shunted to CFP. They didn't find out any of this until the fire, when they went to their insurer who said, We don't cover you. You're CFP now. And because none of that had happened, people don't realize the California Fair Plan is structure only. It does not insure any of your contents. It is your responsibility to layer on coverage with another policy, potentially multiple policies, to create the coverage that you need. So, already as it is, if you happen again, and you'll hear me say it a lot, if you're lucky enough to own a home one way or another, you're looking at your standard homeowners insurance, plus earthquake insurance, plus separate flood insurance, because that's its own animal. If you are in any spot that potentially uh could be impacted, like, you know, for example, if you live around Eaton Canyon, if I as if if I lived on the canyon and my home survived, I would be looking at flood insurance more so than fire because we burned all the fuel. In our lifetimes, the odds of another fire like that are slim. The odds of a flood or mudslide significantly higher because of the flow that's gonna come through there, especially if we get one of these, you know, this is our new reality. Drought, multiple drought years punctuated by extreme uh record-setting rain, followed by more drought, right? This is our new reality. So I think, you know, Steve, what do you think? Are we gonna be looking at layered policies for everyone? Is this the way forward?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think we're gonna have to. And I think that I think that this is something that I this is gonna probably be an you know, and I've had conversations with electeds in DC. And this may be something that's gonna be have to be looked at beyond just California, because part of the problem is when you deal with insurance is you have to broaden the pool for risk. And you know, this is not a problem isolated to California in terms of you know these natural disasters and finding some form of insurance. Now, I I know there's a lot of people that know there's a national flood insurance plan, but that is a mess, and I don't think we want to replicate that. But I think uh there are people I know in conversations I've had in certain rooms at an elected level, at a business level, that want to solve this problem. So I think uh one of the outcomes as the Urban Land Institute report said back in March, there are two things that they that are going to have to still be solved. We can solve a building, we can solve people, I mean, we can solve materials. It's not messy, but we can get there. Or sorry, it's not clean, but it's that we can get there. Finance was the first, which is why AB 797 was so critical, because we weren't gonna get the federal money and we needed to fill the bucket of where the money's gonna come from to do the rebuild and to bring in that private capital. The second piece is insurance. We're not gonna be able to rebuild effectively if we don't have insurance. And so that's the piece that I think a lot of policymakers are seriously looking at right now. I'm not in those rooms, fortunately. I can only solve one of these major problems at a time.

SPEAKER_01:

You can't solve all of our problems, Steve?

SPEAKER_00:

Not yet. I mean, you know, I can only do one at a time. I still have to be a husband and a father. So I think that's more important sometimes. But um, you know, I I think this is something. Thank you for bringing it up, Shauna. I think that there are people that are doing the here and now, but I think those that are in the know and those that are smart, those that understand it, we really need to be looking over the horizon and having these discussions.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It's time to look at the future.

SPEAKER_00:

Indeed.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, we we have to fix the past. We have to fix, I mean, we talked about in our last episode, two last episode, two episodes ago, we spoke a bit about you know what what we were doing on the front of demanding uh an investigation, a real investigation from the attorney general, because I think in a lot of that's in regards to our fire fire response or total lack thereof, specifically for West Altadena. Um but really all of Altadena, but West being the most the worst. Uh we don't need to do it anyhow. My point is very simply, um we have to solve some of our past problems to move forward, right? Like we know that. Like we need resolution, we need accountability, we need real solutions and change, not just like I wrote a report and I said I'm gonna do it, but then I didn't do it. Oops, and then we'll oh shit on the next one.

SPEAKER_00:

You're gonna scare the electeds.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't really care, Steve, as you know. In the scheme of things that I'm concerned with, that one was very, very low on the list. Sorry, electeds, do your job. Well, but you know, it is a it's a tough job, it's a very complicated job right now because uh we do have to find a have a paradigm shift to actual real change solutions. We have a chance here to do that for Alt for Altadena, and then ultimately for the state.

SPEAKER_00:

It's beyond this is you know, Altadena is a microcosm of the broader problems in the state. I mean, you know, we have kicked around I and I've had many discussions about things like housing, and we'll talk about housing later at some meeting, you know, some conversation. But housing itself, like uh 65% of Altadena is over the age of 65 or thereabouts, right? Right. So, you know, one of the big problems is if you look at the demographics, the state is indicating that we're looking at a 20% decrease by 2060 in the state in in uh Los Angeles County in terms of population. Yet everybody wants to build all these apartments and all this housing, and in the next uh 10 to 15, maybe 20 years, you're gonna see a huge amount of housing go on the market because single family homes that are occupied by people who overdrew the age of 65 are going to be sold. And so what's gonna happen when we have a declining population? We have ostensibly build, build, build is the policy, and then all of a sudden all this housing comes on the market. We're not the trajectory that California was in the seven sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, and even two thousands. We're not growing. And you know, I think that our policymakers are still using the lens of the 19 of you know last century. They're not looking at where we're going. And I, you know, I've read and I've heard conversations about this from an economic development perspective as well, that we're not just gonna grow our way out of our problems here anymore. We have we are now a slow growth. We're not a you know, we're not a startup company anymore. We are now a good old-fashioned, you know, maybe grow one or two percent a year. We're we're Microsoft, we're not Google, or I mean I guess Google's none now too. We're not an AI company like OpenAI. We are stayed and boring, and it's not gonna have the same, it can't cover up the same mistakes. And I think that that's something our policymakers really need to understand, whether it's insurance, whether it's you know, financing, whether it's whatever, housing, because housing is these microcosms are right here in Altadena. And, you know, we're gonna get a a a compressed timeline to get a preview of what the broader trends of California are gonna look like. I said this to our electeds, I said, you know, when you really want to know what the what Al Tedena is going to be, in a year or two, you're gonna look back and go, this is the case study. And we just saw a very compressed experiment as to what some of these policy questions test these answers. Let's see what they can look like, let's see how we can do this right because we're here, we're now, you know, and doing what's been done before is not gonna solve it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And in the here and now, that is a good segue. In the here and now, um, this is another thing that's come up in our group uh as of late, is the everyone's favorite word, subrogation. Okay, such a fun word. Uh, we we've had such an educational year. We get to learn about policy and um insurance and uh a bunch of legal terms and utilities and um how transmission uh towers work and what arcing is and what a properly grounded tower looks like and what it looks like when it's not properly grounded. So, in case you didn't know you were getting electricity one-on-one kids, we are getting that too. But today we're gonna talk about subrogation. I really wish I had a Sesame Street uh video to accompany this right now. I feel like we should have a visual um with uh the count spelling out subrogation.

SPEAKER_00:

But isn't this pretty straightforward?

SPEAKER_01:

Subrogation.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's pretty straightforward, right?

SPEAKER_01:

It is, but it isn't. So subrogation um has come up in the context of insurance because I can't speak for everybody else, you know, I never do. But for those of us who have state farm, um we've received a letter, and in fact, I just had a fun email from my state farm uh adjuster number 10 saying, Hey, P.S. Um your mail's being returned, and this important legal letter got bounced, and I'm like, oh, the subrogation letter. And she's like, Yeah, yeah. I was like, What where are you sending it? And they're like, Well, to East Poppy Fields. I was like, cool, so that's the burn site that doesn't exist, and we updated our address nine months ago, and you have it because you pay rent there. So what the heck? Anyhow, here was what was in that letter. The contents of that letter um were in a nutshell explaining that State Farm is going to pursue a subrogation claim against SE, which in in so many words means it looks like these guys were at fault here, not an act of God. And so, because of that, we can claw back our losses from someone else. So they're effectively, then they will, as they have, and you can Google and look at all the past suits. This is not new, there's precedent for this. Uh, insurance companies, when a utility company is found liable, which it is important to note, we are still waiting on the Cal Fire report. And technically, SCE has not been found liable, but so far, per their own admission, there's no other, there, there's no other possible smoking gun at this point but them. So they're they're preparing for the reality.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice term.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, that's the truth here. Or smoking, smoking pole in this case, but that's that'll take us in my 12-year-old mind somewhere else entirely. That is not not uh unfitting for this topic. But all of this is to say, you know, and this is, you know, a lot of attorneys, including my own, are like, hey, great, all of you get at the back of the line, along with the city, with LA County, City of Los Angeles, PUSD, Sierra Madre, everybody else lining up to file suit against SCE, get at the back of the line after all of the fire victims, because we know we're gonna exhaust the$20 plus billion dollars in that wildfire fund. And SCE's on the hook for some of it themselves, but then what, right? So again, back to subrogation, this effectively means that your insurer can and will file a claim against whoever is found at fault at this point and this juncture they believe that is SCE to be compensated for what they have paid you. That also for all of us means very simply no double dipping, right? So when you look at, for example, if you're if you have an attorney and you're part of a mass tort or the mass tort, part of part of a group suit with under the mass tort or an individual suit under the mass tort, anyone of all of us who are suing SCE. If, for example, you have, we're just gonna use numbers, for example, a million dollars in damages, and your insurance covered$500,000 in damages, you can pursue SCE for the$500,000 in damages. Now that does not include things like pain and suffering, personal injury, economic losses, if you had business losses, right? There are all sorts of categories, and this is all relevant because these are all categories that aren't necessarily covered in the SCE offer plan. We're gonna talk about that a little bit next. But basically, effectively, you cannot double dip. And now that means that if you know if the insurance company paid you$500 and you're still out$500 and you get$500 from SCE via a lawsuit or an offer, you don't have to pay back what insurance paid you. That that's a common misconception that I'd love to I really want to clear up because I've seen that going around quite a bit, even in our group where people are saying, oh, you have to pay the insurance company or the insurance company will make you give them your settlement money. That's not true. But they will utilize subrogation to pursue the utility to pay them back for what they've put out. So that initial 500K they paid you, they're gonna get that back from SCP.

SPEAKER_00:

Could that be why they're delaying in 100%?

SPEAKER_01:

No one will ever say that they are because shocker, that would be illegal. But it what else is going on here other than sit delay, delay, delay, deny delay. Why am I on adjuster 10 getting little sprinkles of checks? Here's a here's another little bit of your money that we owe you, here's another little bit we owe you, here's another little bit. I could have simply been paid what I was owed on my policy eight months ago when all the paperwork was, when they had everything they needed, when we knew what was what. All right, months and months. But that's eight months ago, eight months that they wouldn't have been able to sit on close to a million dollars. And that, you know, I'll let everyone do the math at current rates. That's a lot of money. Multi-time, you know, multiply that by all of their customers. So there's a lot of money um at stake. So that that is kind of what this is. And um, you know, it takes us into like this matter of lawsuits and the SCE offer plan and and like we said, we want to touch on that a little bit today. Um, and I I want to add too, if if you're not part of um a lawsuit yet, if you're not part of the mass tort against SCE yet, if you're debating if you should be, you should. If you lived in Altadena on January 7th, you have a claim. I don't care if you were a renter, if you were a homeowner, if you were insured, uninsured, underinsured, heavily insured, the odds are that you have some sort of claim. Uh everyone's case is going to be different. Everyone's uh, you know, legal claims are going to be different, but they are valid and they are real. You know, everyone was exposed to God knows what when we were up there. And um, you know, it's never gonna, we're never gonna hear the numbers of who is going to die as a result of this. Um I don't want to sidetrack too much, but in our group, we've started to hear the first cases of people reporting that their pets had bloody paws after the fire and are now um being diagnosed with rare cancers. Um and we're right on the timeline for where this happened in paradise. First it was first it was the um pets, then it was the people who worked on the sites, and at the same time, then it was the people who lived in the area, specifically those who stayed behind a fight or who stayed and lived in the area in the days after the fire. So we have that to look for too. But the point is, and this does tie into this conversation around the SCE offer claim, is really understanding what the merits are of your case and being able to weigh out what makes the most sense for you. Because on its nose, the SCE offer looks like it could potentially be a lot of money, right? When you do the math and you look at the they set the floor of a rebuild at$600 a square foot. All right. Again, that's conservative. If they are setting it at that for payback, you can do the math yourself as to what they think it really is going to cost. It's not that. It's more for a true like for like rebuild, it is more, right? So, you know, you you need to understand that concept as well. That, you know, this is not a gift horse, right? The SCE is not doing an altruistic thing. They're not looking to make you whole, they're not trying to do you a favor. They are trying to limit their liability. Every single one of us who settles with them in a direct offer is going to save them money because every single one of us would get more money in court, including after attorney's fees, which, by the way, if you have an attorney, you still have to pay even if you go the SCE offer route.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they they give them 10%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. They will cover 10%. So if you're at 25%, you're still on the hook for the other 15. If you're at, and I can't believe this, but I've heard it. I've heard, you know, one of the large groups advertising heavily is at 30 plus percent. One person in our group made a comment saying they believed their attorney was worth it at 40%. I was like, oh my gosh, you're being taken for a ride. Um, the answer is no. And I'm gonna say on that, on a just a very general note, if you're if you're not on a case yet, go take a look at our substack, the beautiful Altadina Substack. There is a post a few months back titled Um the Beautiful Altadina Lawsuit. And aside from understanding our lawsuit, and it's I I want to note that our lawsuit is closed, we've hit max claimants for our suit for what our firms are comfortable handling at the higher level that these need to be handled. But um there are still some smaller, excellent firms taking on clients, including some um out of out of uh NorCal who handled some of the Palisades cases. Paradise. Um thank you, Paradise. I I just had Palace, I had Palisades on the brain because you know it is October 8th as we are recording, and the news broke this morning of someone being arrested in the Palisades fire. Yeah, that it was arson. Um so, and it was a Florida man, and I know there's a Florida man joke in there, but it would be very distasteful, and we won't go there. Um but to get back to this, that we did a post that you know got into what we were doing and why and when we filed and why. But most importantly, for all of you listening right now, I included in there a guide to vetting any attorney. So, you know, the long and short of it is go read the guide. There's some really great resources, tips, tricks, hacks for how to really background check any attorney you may be considering. Um, all these people advertising as wildfire attorneys, I would run away from. Um, first of all, anyone advertising is looking for a payday and is probably not the best possible representation you can get. Doesn't mean that it isn't, but may not be. Number two, um, this is not a wildfire case ultimately. This is an electrical negligence case. So you better make sure that your attorney actually understands the glossary of terms related to this kind of litigation, or even better, has litigated SCE in LA County before. So we'll we'll leave it at that for people looking for a great uh lawyer. But getting back to this SCE offer plan, it looks great on its nose because it looks like you could get a million dollars, you could get this. When you do the math, when you reduce, as you again, subrogation, no double dipping, when you deduct what you get from insurance, when you deduct the legal fees that you will still be on the hook for over the 10%, and when you consider taxes, everybody needs to talk to a CPA. There is some litigation that the folks in uh Palisades got pushed. I'm sorry, he said it did it again. The folks in Paradise, because I'm staring at a story from LA Times, that the folks in Paradise were able to push through for us as you know, they all just like us, they became activists and then they actually became legislators because they had to, because no one was gonna do it for them. So they pushed through some legislation to um suspend taxation on these specifically these types of settlements in the state of California, but that does not apply federally, and that is also look is about to um expire. They are trying to get it pushed so that it will be extended. But again, talk to your CPA, know what you're on the hook for, understand this very, very clearly. Um, because you know, ultimately for those, specifically for those who were homeowners and insured, you're looking at pennies after all is said and done. You do the math and go, hey, this could give me like a million dollars, one one, one two, with the way that this all breaks out. It actually does not, and a number of things are missing from it. The personal injury is uh significantly cut, reduced, very minimal, pain and suffering, virtually non-existent. If those are very real categories for you, you may be better in litigation. If um you have business losses, which are not really covered at all, you may be bit better off in litigation. If you are outside of the arbitrary DINS map that was used for all of this, you may have significant damage, maybe even a total loss. But you're outside of that map, you're not included at all, um, which is wild. So, you know, as I said in our group, there's a lot of chatter about this, and like everything, whether or not it's going to make sense for you is going to come down to your personal circumstances and your situation. The offer ultimately was better than I expected it would be based on what has been done in the past, but it seems like this is still going to be a bad deal for a lot of groups of folks, like the few that we just discussed. But, you know, again, most especially. Those with homes that are still standing but damaged, who really get the short end on this, those who had the business loss or other economic losses, like if you lost a job because of the fire, people who had meaningful PI cases, personal injury cases, those with reasonable insurance, who after subrogation and attorney's fees and taxes are just really not going to see much. You know, you need to talk to a trusted attorney and see if this makes sense for you. In the past, everywhere that similar settlement, direct settlement offers like this were done, those who took them ultimately got pennies on the dollar compared to their neighbors who went through litigation. Litigation does not come without risk. It also means waiting. Some people cannot wait. I understand that. Just like there's zero judgment for those who have to sell. There is no one size fits all for any of us. Everyone has to make their best decisions. Well, and that's what Edison was doing.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Edison was betting on let's let's knock down the litigation and let's focus on those that are going to need to have litigation and you know they'll work their way through it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, I had said that, for example, one group I think the direct settlement may make sense for are those who lost an elder family member to the fire. So that offer was um five million dollars without legal fees, and that frankly is pretty fair and reasonable compared to what will likely shake out in litigation for people because for better or for worse, the way that they kind of calculate um claims and losses when you lose someone like that is earning capacity and X number of years remaining. So, you know, if you had an elder family member who perished, Steve is timing me so that we don't go too long and we don't put you to sleep. So I'm gonna go into my droning voice and lull you all to sleep as we wrap up this topic. Um, so you know, anyhow, I was gonna say without you know weight and continued torment and you know the benefit of just being able to move on, like for some people it's gonna make sense. For some people, it's like, hey, uh if I'm gonna, if I need this money now and the options are completely lose my place or take half of what I could get after I lose my place, yeah, take it. Do what you gotta do, no judgment. But um, you know, ultimately, the only way you're going to know that is going through a trusted legal advisor who's knowledgeable about these types of utility settlements, about SCE litigation, familiar with the very specific, you know, specifics of your case, and is qualified to answer that. Um, so you know, I can't say it enough. Consult those trusted advisors, not the internet, not a group of advocates in the community, not my group, not crowdsourced, not chat GPT. You need to talk to a lawyer. And for God's sake, I I keep saying this too, you know, please do not share details about your personal case with anyone else. Don't put them on the internet, don't put them into a form where SCE wants you to ask your questions. Don't, you know, put them into a survey that a community group is is circulating. They that is all discovery, folks. You know, nothing is private unless you're having a conversation with you know your attorney. Your attorney, your spouse, or your god. Uh that that's it. It is that is public information, even if you think it's not. So I think, you know, we'll it again, buyer beware. Um, this is not a gift horse, but it could be a gift for some.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Well.

SPEAKER_01:

That was a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

That was. I I sit back and just listen to the point where I was so in enraptured that I forgot the timer. I apologize.

SPEAKER_01:

It's okay. Um, I do want to wrap it up um with a small biz shout-out. I'm gonna today it's gonna be me a tie, um, in part because I was there yesterday. Yeah. And um remembering how much I love being there. Like uh anytime you go in, aside from the fact that the food is amazing, they were they've had so much press because they're so good.

SPEAKER_00:

And no, it's not a delicatessen.

SPEAKER_01:

It is not a delicatessen, even though David, the owner David Terrasart, um, who was another Altadina local and who very sadly lost his home, even though um he did his business did survive. He had um, yes, that it was once upon a time, I think it was Kern's, right? Kern's delicatessen. Um, a friend of mine who's another um chef in the community who lives in our community, Fred Eric. Um, Fred Eric has an awesome pizza shop, and he's got Fred Fred 62 in um uh Los Feliz. And um is it Los Feliz? I think it is Los Feliz. I should know. Um love Fred, but Fred actually found a matchbook from that spot when it was when it was Kern's delicatessen that had an image of it that was amazing. And um David, when he came in with me a tie, um David is another seasoned hospitality guy. You know, he's been in the business a long time. He's um he owns Sticky Rice, they've got four locations, including Grand Central Central Market. There's Moon Rabbit in Grand Central Market. He's um got the old goldfish on York and Highland Park. That's uh music venue used to be the old hi-hat. Um they're very much he's a pro. But also, you know, he wanted to bring home-style cooking to the LA restaurant scene. And um, and we have it in Altadina, and it's really, really good. So um, if you if you're not gluten-free like me, um and I have to be gluten-free and it sucks, but if you are not special needs as I am, eat the Thai-fried chicken. I salivate over it every time I see it come out. Oh my gosh. Um, even if you like to be a little pedestrian, the pad thai is amazing. It is not like pad thai anywhere else. Um and on Tuesdays, they do a plant-based Tuesday. So on Tuesdays, if you're vegan, vegetarian, this is your spot. Um, I am not, and I always seem to find myself there on a Tuesday, and then I'm cursing because I want um chicken and my curry. But for all of our friends who don't eat meat, it's a perfect option. And they are located at 2470 North Lake. They're next door to the Well Rock. If you don't know the Well Rock, another awesome local business that survived the fire and is reopened. The Well Rock is um a uh little uh gym with small group classes. They also do um private instruction. I used to go there, it's such a great spot if you want like a really neighborhood vibey gym that's um a little bit next level, but not over the top. Jesse and Sarah, husband and wife, again, local Altadinans, own that spot.

SPEAKER_00:

They're also readers.

SPEAKER_01:

They are. And it hi and Sarah, we miss you. They're um also fantastic in a business worth supporting. So that's that's my shout out for today.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. Well, hope you all are still there at the end of this one. It was a long one. It was a long one. Thank you for sticking with it. We're Sean and Steve find us online, submit questions. You know where to find Shauna at Beautiful Altadena on Facebook, on Instagram, on Substack, Beautiful Altadena OG. That's the original group, not the other thinking at Gmail. And me, I'm Steve Sachs. I'm at the uh Alta Policy Wonk. I only have one site to find me at, so I'm pretty easy. So, anyway, have a great day. Thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll see you soon. Bye.