When news got out that L.A. County is suing State Farm, social media filled with people asking: “Why aren’t they suing MY insurer??”
Because accountability starts with evidence. One survivor’s experience can be dismissed. Hundreds reporting the same thing become evidence of a pattern.
More than 500 Eaton and Palisades fire survivors shared their State Farm experiences through the EFSN website. We analyzed their accounts, identified patterns of potential legal violations, brought them to the County and connected County Counsel with dozens of survivors.
Our data and analysis appear throughout the County’s 107-page lawsuit, the nation’s first such local-government action against a major national insurer. Together, the County’s investigation and lawsuit and EFSN’s previous data collections have helped unlock more than $100 million in additional State Farm payments.
Now we’re building that evidence across EVERY insurer. But some of the survivors with the most at stake are still undercounted.
With a UCLA research team, EFSN has launched the nation’s first survey measuring how every insurer actually performs after a major disaster. More than 1,400 survivors have participated.
Renters, FAIR Plan policyholders, uninsured survivors and households with smoke damage are underrepresented. So are survivors with smaller or surplus-lines insurers, Black and Latino households, and survivors less proficient in English.
Many households in these groups have historically faced barriers to capital and financial resources, leaving them less able to withstand delays or challenge an insurer.
This survey is an opportunity to turn those experiences into evidence for insurance accountability and help address inequities in recovery.
How is each insurer handling smoke damage?
Did some insurers systematically underinsure homes?
How are renters being treated?
Are people with limited English getting the insurance benefits they paid for?
The survey can reveal patterns and build evidence for accountability. Law enforcement and journalists across the nation are already eagerly awaiting the results.
Whose experiences are counted will help shape what gets investigated and which problems become priorities for reform. If some groups remain undercounted, practices hitting them hardest could go unexamined.
Together, let’s close these gaps so undercounted survivors are fully included in the accountability that follows.
With UCLA, we’ll anonymize these experiences and turn them into free public data, interactive tools and a public scorecard for each insurer, showing who delayed, denied or underpaid and who kept their promises. Survivors and community organizations can use that evidence to press for action.
The goal is to get the money moving so families can get home.
Every experience counts, good and bad.
Whether you’re a renter or homeowner, have FAIR Plan or surplus-lines coverage, or experienced smoke damage, your experience belongs here.
That includes uninsured survivors. And if your insurer kept its promises, please tell us that, too.
Your identity stays private. The patterns become public. Before any public release, identifying information will be removed and all links to personal information permanently broken. Results will be reported only in groups of households, never at the individual household level.
The survey takes approximately 15 minutes and is available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean. One response per household.
Take the survey. Then help three survivors be counted.
FireSurvey.org
Share the link with three survivors. Help a neighbor complete it. Every personal invitation can ensure another survivor’s experience is counted in the evidence that drives accountability.
All Eaton fire survivors are welcome.
Once the survey closes, we can’t add more experiences. Let’s make sure the survivors who are too often overlooked are part of the evidence that gets families home.
Joy Chen is an Eaton Fire survivor, former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and Executive Director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, serving more than 10,000 Eaton and Palisades fire survivors and allies.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
