By Maui Fire Lawyers
The raging wildfires that ravaged West Maui last week destroyed a significant number of homes and other buildings. At least 115 people were killed and hundreds remain missing. Many of the victims are seeking compensation for their losses. Law firms that specialize in fire lawsuits have dispatched representatives from their offices to Hawaii to sign up residents for claims. The plaintiff lawyers use a strategy that relies on the concept of inverse condemnation.
The legal concept involves treating a private company like a governmental entity and allowing property owners to sue the quasi-governmental body for damages without having to prove that it was negligent or reckless. The approach has been successful for victims of California’s wildfires, including the PG&E fire that caused billions in damage in 2021 and led to a $13.5 billion settlement for fire victims.
Maui fire lawyers are using a similar method to seek damages from the utility. They are arguing that the company violated the public’s right to equal protection under the law by not properly maintaining its infrastructure, particularly its power lines. They are also arguing that it failed to shut off power in the face of hurricane-force winds and other weather warnings, thereby causing the fires to spread.
Maui Fire Lawyers Seeking Compensation For Victims of the West Maui Wildfires
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are arguing that there is considerable evidence, including videos, witness accounts, and burn progression, that Hawaiian Electric’s equipment was responsible for starting the blaze that destroyed Lahaina. They have filed class actions against the utility and its subsidiaries.
Hawaiian Electric fire lawyers
In addition to the class actions, the County of Maui has filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric. The county alleges that the utility failed to shut off power in the face of high wind and other red flag warnings and thereby contributed to the deadly fires that swept through the resort town.
The County lawsuit also accuses the utility of negligence in its maintenance of power lines on both private and public lands, some of which were destroyed in the fires. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in these cases are arguing that the Maui fires were foreseeable and preventable, in part because of long-standing scientific studies showing the heightened risk in Hawaii’s western portion from climate change and a proliferation of flammable non-native vegetation.
Maui fire lawyers are also arguing that the utility knew or should have known about these risks, because it received more than $200 million from the state’s Public Utilities Commission in recent years to improve its power grid. The lawsuits allege that the utility used some of this money but did not use enough to make its infrastructure safer.
One of the plaintiff attorneys in the lawsuits, Singleton Schreiber of San Diego, told NBC News that his firm was flying investigators to Hawaii this weekend to investigate the cause of the fires. They will look at witness accounts of downed power lines, and review aerial images of the area to identify possible causes of the fires. They will also examine electrical equipment on the ground and the extent to which that equipment was impacted by the fires.