Losing your home and virtually everything you own in a wildfire is a catastrophe.
Terrible things happen in life that you cannot control and that sometimes seem to happen for no reason at all. People get sick. Natural disasters destroy homes and communities. Accidents happen. Bad things happen to good people.
You can be angry. You can grieve. You can wish it never happened. But sometimes there isn't anything you can do to change the past. At some point, as difficult as it may be, you have to accept it as best you can, pick yourself up and try to move forward.
The fire happened to us. We can't change that. But the way insurance companies treated Southern California fire victims after the fire didn't just happen by chance.
Insurance companies make decisions based upon financial considerations and risk assessment. Somewhere inside those companies, people made decisions about how claims would be handled and how much would be paid. They knew some policyholders would fight. They also knew many wouldn't.
They calculated the risk. In other words, somebody decided that financially it made sense and they could get away with it.
There are class action lawsuits attempting to blame others that are legally responsible for causing the fire. Whether they will succeed is highly speculative. And even if they do, there will be an enormous number of people and claims competing for any recovery, along with enormous legal fees and expenses.
We know exactly who is to blame. We don't have to speculate.
You bought an insurance policy. You paid the premiums. Your insurance company made promises to pay you after a loss. In many cases, insurance companies failed to keep those promises. And there are well-established laws, rules, and regulations governing those promises and how insurance claims must be handled.
The fire may be something you ultimately have to accept. Your insurance company failing to pay what it owes you isn't. And there is something you can do about it.
Is suing their insurance company the right thing to do for every fire victim? Absolutely not.
That is what Series 1 of the ISMIC content is about. The Series 1 Chapters help you decide whether pursuing a lawsuit is the right decision for you.
But if you decide not to proceed with a lawsuit, we hope your decision is for the right reasons.
If I could, I would personally coach and help every single fire victim who has been unfairly treated by their homeowners insurance company. I feel that strongly and passionately about it.
I would sit right next to you and tell you the same things we have been telling you throughout the ISMIC materials:
You can do this. You got this. It may be hard at times. I'll help you get through it. Be your own best advocate. Lean on me when you need to. Don't be passive. We'll figure it out together. You don't need to be perfect. Follow the path laid out in front of you. If it worked for me, it can work for you too.
The reality is that I can't personally sit next to and coach every fire victim. That is why we created ISMIC, and those are just some of the many messages we have tried to relay to you throughout the website.
There are many perfectly valid reasons not to take on the burden of proceeding with a lawsuit. Our hope is that after reading ISMIC, those reasons will not include:
I don't know what to expect. I'm too late. I've never done this before. I don't know if I have a good case. I don't understand the law. I know nothing about lawsuits. I don't know how to find a lawyer. I can't afford a lawyer. I don't know how to pick a lawyer. I don't know how to hire a lawyer. I don't know what to ask the lawyer. It's too hard to figure out on my own. The prospect of going to Trial frightens me.
The ISMIC content addresses all of those concerns.
If you decide not to move forward because of any of those reasons, ISMIC has not served its purpose.
If you do decide to file a lawsuit, knowing what to expect doesn't mean it will be easy.
Sometimes good things will happen. You uncover an important document. A deposition goes extremely well. A ruling comes out in your favor. You feel great. Your confidence goes up. Maybe you start thinking: We've got them.
Then something bad will happen. A ruling is issued against you. A witness doesn't perform the way you expected. A Mediation you thought might end the lawsuit goes nowhere.
Your confidence drops. You get angry. You worry. Maybe you start thinking: What am I doing?
And sometimes nothing happens at all. Days go by. Weeks go by. You are thinking about the lawsuit every day, but the lawsuit doesn't seem to be moving fast enough. You wonder what everybody is doing and why everything is taking so long.
Then something happens and your emotions start moving again. It's like riding an emotional rollercoaster.
Being a Btter Client doesn't mean becoming emotionless. You lost your home. You fought with your insurance company. And now you are a Plaintiff in a lawsuit. Of course you are going to have emotions about what happens along the way. Lots of emotions. I certainly did. And I had been involved in countless lawsuits.
But this is different. This is personal.
Enjoy the highs. Get through the lows. Try to be patient when nothing seems to be happening. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself. And take emotional breaks along the way.
That is a very interesting question.
From a financial perspective? Absolutely. 100%. No question.
But what about the other costs?
Hours and hours and hours of time. Time away from family. Time that could have been spent relaxing. More time reliving every detail of what was lost. Thinking about the fire over and over again. Delay in moving on.
Lots of highs and lots of lows. Anger. Worry. Frustration. Anxiety. Excitement. Vindication. Disappointment. Hope. Exhaustion.
Emotional costs.
Even creating ISMIC had an emotional cost. I wish that I could say it was a labor of love. But I would be lying. Reliving the lawsuit and thinking about every step we took, every decision we made, why we made it, what we did right, what we did wrong, and how to describe and explain it all, was not at all therapeutic. It was like reopening old wounds that had just started to heal.
But I couldn't stop. I had to get it done. I wanted to help. And this is how I could do it.
Better Informed. Better Decisions. Better Results.
