California Natural Disaster Lawyer

When the Worst Day of Your Life Becomes a Legal Fight

California’s wildfires, mudslides, and floods do not just take homes. They take photo albums, family heirlooms, neighborhood streets, and a sense of normal that can take years to rebuild. In the days after a disaster, survivors are usually fighting two battles at once. One against the utility, developer, or company whose negligence caused the fire. The other against the insurance carrier that is supposed to pay for the loss.

A California natural disaster lawyer at KBK Lawyers handles both battles inside one firm. That matters because the two cases share evidence, share timelines, and often share witnesses. Splitting them across two firms can slow the recovery and leave money on the table.

Recent California Wildfires We Are Handling

Our team is actively representing survivors of California’s most recent major fires, including the 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena and Pasadena and the 2025 Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Topanga. We also handle claims from older fires that remain inside the statute of limitations, and we are watching the 2026 fire season closely so we can respond as soon as new events occur.

  • Eaton Fire — Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, La Cañada Flintridge
  • Palisades Fire — Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Topanga, Brentwood
  • Earlier California utility-caused fires within the statute of limitations
  • Future wildfire events — call as soon as evacuation orders lift

The Two Cases Most Fire Survivors Have

  1. The case against the utility or other responsible party:
    Many recent California wildfires have been linked to utility equipment, downed lines, faulty insulators, or vegetation management failures. When an investigation points to a utility such as Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, fire survivors can bring a civil case to recover damages the carrier never paid, including total loss of the home, contents, landscaping, lost rental income, evacuation costs, lost wages, and emotional distress. A California natural disaster lawyer experienced with utility liability cases knows how to preserve scene evidence, work with origin-and-cause investigators, and coordinate with the broader plaintiffs’ steering committee that usually forms in these matters.
  2.  The case against your insurance carrier:
    Even when a utility is on the hook, your own homeowner’s insurance is often the first source of money — and the first source of frustration. Carriers routinely undervalue contents lists, deny smoke and ash damage, refuse to pay code-upgrade coverage, and cut off Additional Living Expenses long before the rebuild is finished. A California natural disaster lawyer pushes back on those tactics so the policy actually does what you paid for.

Why KBK Lawyers

Brian Kabateck, our founding partner, has spent decades representing Californians against large corporate defendants and insurance carriers. He is a past President of Consumer Attorneys of California and a past President of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles. He has been appointed to leadership roles in major class actions and mass torts, and he is regularly quoted in the Los Angeles Times and on national news when big consumer cases break. Shant Karnikian leads the firm’s wildfire and first-party insurance work and is one of the most active California natural disaster lawyer voices on first-party policyholder rights.

Following catastrophic events, KBK Lawyers has stood as a powerful advocate for affected communities, holding insurance companies and negligent parties accountable. The firm has secured more than $260 million in landmark recoveries for survivors of major disasters, including over $250 million for victims of the devastating 1994 Northridge Earthquake and a $10 million settlement for homeowners affected by the 2009 Southern California wildfires.

Natural Disaster Practice Areas We Handle

Our team represents California disaster survivors across a broad range of event types and defendants. Each of the practice areas below is its own sub-practice with deep firm-side experience. Follow the links to learn what your case is worth and how the process works in that specific matter.

  • California Wildfire Lawyer — Utility-caused fires, structure loss, evacuation expenses, and the full range of damages available to fire survivors.
  • Eaton Fire (2025) — Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and La Cañada Flintridge residents and businesses.
  • Palisades Fire (2025) — Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Topanga, and Brentwood residents and businesses.
  • Southern California Edison Wildfire Lawsuits — Civil cases against SCE for utility-equipment-caused fires.
  • LADWP Wildfire Lawsuits — Civil cases involving Los Angeles Department of Water and Power equipment and infrastructure failures.
  • PG&E Wildfire Lawsuits — Civil cases against Pacific Gas and Electric for Northern and Central California fires.
  • Mudslides — Debris-flow injury and property claims, often following burn-scar destabilization.
  • Earthquake Damage — First-party insurance disputes after seismic events, including the firm’s historical work on Northridge claims.
  • Floods and Storm Damage — Atmospheric-river, winter-storm, and dam-failure losses.

When new wildfire or disaster events occur in California, we add event-specific pages quickly so survivors can find dedicated information about that fire’s litigation status, defendants, and deadlines.

What You Can Recover

  • The full insured value of your home, contents, and outbuildings
  • Replacement-cost value, not just actual cash value
  • Code-upgrade coverage to bring the rebuild up to current code
  • Additional Living Expenses for the full duration of the rebuild
  • Loss-of-use, lost rental income, and business interruption losses
  • Landscaping, fencing, and hardscape losses
  • Emotional distress damages where the law allows
  • Punitive damages against utilities whose conduct was reckless
  • Statutory penalties and attorneys’ fees in certain insurance claims

Deadlines Move Fast in Fire Cases

Most California personal injury claims allow two years to file. Insurance policies often have their own one-year suit limitation, though wildfire-related policies must give at least two years under California Insurance Code section 2071. Mass utility cases sometimes involve government claim deadlines as short as six months if a public entity is involved. A California natural disaster lawyer can map every deadline on day one so nothing is missed.

What to Do Now

  1. Take photos and video of every part of the property before anything is cleaned up, if safety allows.
  2. Save your policy, declarations page, and every communication from the carrier.
  3. Make a contents list room by room. Use receipts, photos from before the fire, social media posts, and credit card statements.
  4. Keep every receipt for hotel, rental, food, clothing, and replacement essentials.
  5. Do not sign a release, sworn statement, or proof of loss without legal review.
  6. Call a California natural disaster lawyer before the carrier sets the value of your loss.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to choose between suing the utility and filing an insurance claim?

No. You can do both, and most fire survivors should. The two cases work together. The recoveries are coordinated through a process called subrogation so you do not end up double-paying or double-receiving on the same loss.

Nothing up front. Our work is on a contingency fee, meaning we are only paid if we recover money for you. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, agreed in writing before we start.

Call us anyway. Some older California fires still have open litigation paths, and other claims may still be inside the statute of limitations depending on the policy and the discovery rule.