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This video features Guy L. Watts II, a Personal Injury attorney based in Texas.
Guy Watts:
It was just a tragic event that all of us involved were anxiously watching updates on a daily basis, and unfortunately it proved to be quite disastrous.
Rob Rosenthal:
What's the latest on the huge Dixie wildfire in California and the efforts to recover damages for the victims? That's what we're gonna find out right now on this episode of Ask the Lawyer. Hi again everybody, I'm Rob Rosenthal with AskTheLawyers.com. My guest is attorney Guy Watts with the law firm of Watts Guerra, which has already started filing suits to try and recover damages for victims of the Dixie wildfire. I wanna remind you, if you wanna talk to Guy or any of his team about your situation, what you want to do is just call the phone number that will be on the screen during our conversation. Guy, thank you for making some time to answer our questions.
Guy Watts:
You bet, Rob.
Rob Rosenthal:
So here we are, mid-December, let's get a status update. The situation, where does the wildfire itself standing? It's completely contained, right?
Guy Watts:
Yeah, thankfully, the fire is finally contained. This has gone down as the second largest fire in the history of California, and I think what is most noteworthy about the fire is just how long it took before it was fully contained. People in Greenville were anxiously watching updates to see where the fire was gonna go, and unfortunately it kept flowing to the east and leveled the town of Greenville, but it started in July and it wasn't contained for about three and a half months, and it burned nearly... I think it was 970 acres, 970,000 acres. And so it was just a tragic event that all of us involved were anxiously watching updates on a daily basis, and unfortunately it proved to be quite disastrous.
Rob Rosenthal:
There is currently litigation, tell us where that stands and have you filed cases? Where do we stand on all that?
Guy Watts:
We have. We've filed, all of our clients we've put into a lawsuit, we followed their cases, we continue to meet on a daily basis with new clients, and as they come on board, we file their lawsuits, and so we'll just continue doing that all the way through the statute of limitations. We'll continue to talk to people and make sure that they have all their answers, all their questions answered, where they can talk to lawyers, they can interview other law firms and just make sure that they're making the right decision on who they want to represent them.
Rob Rosenthal:
You mentioned the statute, how long do people have to make a claim?
Guy Watts:
Well, in wildfire litigation, we're making several allegations, you can principally start with negligence, that's a two-year statute of limitations, but we also do nuisance, we'll do trespass, we'll do inverse condemnation, but most of the causes of action that we include in our lawsuit are two year statute of limitations. Occasionally, or at least one of those cause of action is a three-year statute, but our lawsuit contains six or seven causes of action, like I say, most of those are two-year statute of limitations, so people have time. I'm sure that their focus is rebuilding their lives primarily, and then then maybe seeking compensation for the losses they sustained, but they've got time, but for us, we're going full steam.
Rob Rosenthal:
It's two years from what point, Guy?
Guy Watts:
From the time that they have their loss.
Rob Rosenthal:
Oh, okay.
Guy Watts:
So they've got some... They've got some time, but we're already in litigation with PG&E, we anticipate that the lawsuits, like other fires, 2017, 18, 19, there are lawsuits that have been filed in five different counties, and then also lawsuits were filed in San Francisco County, which the home county of PG&E, so eventually, like with other fires, all of those lawsuits would be consolidated into the JCCP, where one judge will be in charge of overseeing the discovery, and then eventually if there's trials, then they may go out to each one of these counties.
Rob Rosenthal:
You've mentioned PG&E, your contention is that PG&E is liable for starting this fire. Tell me a little bit about that, how did you come to that conclusion?
Guy Watts:
Well, it starts with PG&E's own reporting. They're required to report to the California Public Utilities Commission, and early on, they suggested that their equipment was responsible, and then what happened back in September is there is a federal judge who oversees PG&E's probation from prior fires, the Butte disaster. And that judge had a hearing, and that in that hearing, he wanted testimony from a lineman who worked for PG&E. That lineman was out in the area whose job was to look for potential problems, and he found a potential problem. He saw a line that had two blown fuses and he saw a tree, a rotted out Douglas Fir, leaning up against that very line, so he reported it into PG&E, and then it took 'em nearly 10 hours to get to the base of that line, and when he got there, he saw a fire, a small fire at the base of the line, clearly connected to PG&E's lines, and then he started trying to put the fire out himself, but obviously he wasn't successful, and it grew to what it grew to be.
Rob Rosenthal:
Some people express concern, Guy, that if people get money in these lawsuits and then that's gonna raise the price of electricity for everybody all across the state of California. What's your thought on that?
Guy Watts:
Well, I think it's a valid concern. But in California, these utilities are regulated by the PUC, and in order to raise any rates at all, they have to petition the PUC to raise those rates. And that hasn't happened. More importantly, after the disaster, 2017 and 18, Governor Newsom signed into law AB-1054, which established a risk-sharing pool to be shared by the three utilities in California, including PG&E, so that fund is about $20 billion, so PG&E has insurance for each year that they operate, and so this would go into year 2021, which is not the same insurance money that existed in 2017 or 18 or 19 or 20, so they have insurance, and then they also have a kind of a fund that they have set themselves up with, but then most importantly, they have this risk-sharing arrangement with the states where there's ample money to pay for their... What they caused.
Rob Rosenthal:
So you mentioned at the firm of Watts Guerra, you guys have hit the ground running as far as filing lawsuits, now it's a hard question, what's the timeline? What can people expect? People, like you said, they wanna get their lives put back together, tell me what, what... Give me a rough guess of what we can expect as far as a timeline.
Guy Watts:
I'll tell you what I tell my clients is that I'm not gonna tell them that it's gonna be six months, I'm not gonna tell 'em it's gonna be 12 months. Every lawsuit is it's own animal, and so I can tell you what I kind of expect to happen, which is that these various losses, all of the ones that we follow as well as other cases will be consolidated and in front of one judge, we'll do it, we've done with the other cases, which is we litigate, we take discovery, we've already... We've already hired experts that have been to the scene multiple times, and so we have a pretty firm theory as to what we believe happened, but during the course of litigation, we'll be able to speak directly with PG&E through deposition testimony and essentially prove our case. Now, the part that is unknown is, will there be a settlement before there's a trial? I would anticipate that a trial could be set sometime in the year 2023, early 2023, and those... when a trial is set, then it really motivates both both sides to try to reach an agreement, so I would say that we will litigate full board for the next year, and I don't think that we're in a position to explore settlement with PG&E until they're ready to reach settlement with us.
Rob Rosenthal:
Lots of really helpful information, Guy, thank you for making some time and answering our questions today, I appreciate it.
Guy Watts:
You bet.
Rob Rosenthal:
That's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been attorney Guy Watts with the law firm of Watts Guerra. A reminder, if you wanna talk to Guy or someone on his team about your losses in the Dixie wildfire, you can call the phone number 707-260-1999. Thanks for watching, I'm Rob Rosenthal with Ask the Lawyers.
This is a paid advertisement funded by the law firm of Watts Guerra LLC. The purpose is to reach prospective clients with respect to the matters described. Doug Boxer of The Law Office of Douglas Boxer is licensed to practice law in California. Attorneys identified, other than Doug Boxer, are licensed to practice law in the State of Texas. Mikal Watts is Board Certified in Personal Injury Law. Unless otherwise indicated, the attorneys listed are not board certified. This does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your potential legal matter and does not constitute an attorney-client privilege or relationship. The principal offices of Watts Guerra LLC are located in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The principal office of the Law Office of Douglas Boxer is at 2561 California Park Drive, Suite 100, Chico, CA 95928. Doug Boxer, of The Law Office of Douglas Boxer, and Mikal Watts, of Watts Guerra LLC, are the attorneys responsible for the content of this advertisement.
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