{"id":302936,"date":"2026-05-06T18:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/302936\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:48:08","slug":"trump-administration-backs-wildfire-victims-suing-state-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/302936\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration backs wildfire victims suing State Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump recently bashed State Farm on social media<\/a>, saying the insurer\u2019s treatment of residents whose homes burned in the January 2025 wildfires had been \u201cabsolutely horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month later, the Department of Justice has filed a brief<\/a> supporting 60 fire victims who have sued State Farm and other insurers, claiming the carriers colluded to force <\/a> them onto California\u2019s Fair Plan, the state\u2019s insurer of last resort.<\/p>\n

The document filed by the Justice Department in the Los Angeles Superior Court case led by plaintiffs Todd and Kimberley Ferrier \u2014 whose Pacific Palisades home burned down \u2014 buttresses arguments made by the victims\u2019 attorneys. <\/p>\n

Specifically, the brief seeks to knock down one of the legal theories made by the insurers to have the case thrown out.<\/p>\n

The argument claims that the insurer\u2019s are shielded from antitrust liability under both California and federal law due to a specific legal doctrine that applies to them involving their status as state-regulated entities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing the fire victims need is the improper use of certain legal doctrines to deprive Angelenos of their day in court,\u201d said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Charlie Beller of the department\u2019s Antitrust Division in press release.<\/p>\n

While the legal brief takes no position on the merits of the homeowners\u2019 collusion allegations, the division said it routinely files statements of interest \u201cwhere doing so helps protect competition and consumers, including by encouraging the sound development of the antitrust laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob Ruyak, an attorney representing the homeowners, said that while the government didn\u2019t take a position on the merits of the case, it\u2019s brief was welcomed as the judge weighs whether the case will move to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t really say anything much more than we said, but it was additional support,\u201d said Ruyak, who added that the insurers legal theory was \u201cvery weak\u201d anyway.<\/p>\n

State Farm spokesman Sevag Sarkissian said the department\u2019s brief only addressed a legal argument seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that the DOJ did not take a position on whether the plaintiffs\u2019 factual claims are accurate or supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruyak, based in Washington D.C., said that the homeowners\u2019 legal team had not reached out to the government and was unaware why the department decided to weigh in, though the antitrust division does monitor relevant cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the President\u2019s interested in it, that might spur them a little more than it might otherwise, but we just don\u2019t know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Department of Justice officials did not respond to a message for comment.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s March 31 post<\/a> on Truth Social followed a visit by administration officials to Pacific Palisades in February.<\/p>\n

The post also asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to provide Trump with a \u201clist of the Companies who acted swiftly, courageously, and bravely in order to make their clients happy and, even more importantly, in order to fulfill their Legal obligations. Likewise, I have asked to see those Companies that were particularly bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Farm, the state\u2019s largest home insurer, is the lead defendant in the lawsuit, but it also names Farmers, Mercury and other top insurers. It\u2019s also one of a pair of lawsuits filed by the attorneys accusing collusion by the carriers. <\/p>\n

They allege the companies financially benefited when policyholders were move onto the FAIR Plan, since it is financially backed by the insurers and sells policies that are more expensive but offer less coverage.<\/p>\n

The Ferrier lawsuit seeks to compensate homeowners who experienced fire losses exacerbated by the FAIR Plan\u2019s limited coverage. The other case is a proposed class action that would compensate policyholders for the higher premiums. <\/p>\n

A ruling on the insurer\u2019s efforts to have the cases dismissed is expected shortly.<\/p>\n

The disclosure Monday that the Justice Department filed the brief came on the same day that California regulators filed an administrative action against State Farm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seeks millions of dollars of fines and possible suspension of the carrier\u2019s license to sell insurance in California, alleging State Farm mishandled January 2025 wildfire claims.<\/p>\n

The company acknowledges some claims were mishandled but rejected claims<\/a> it engaged in a \u201cgeneral practice of mishandling or intentionally underpaying wildfire claims.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump recently bashed State Farm on social media, saying the insurer\u2019s treatment of residents whose homes burned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[127856,1052,127857,45590,7,15025,1436,6246,28097,285,3285,48,52,51,1846,47,50,49,16975,33023,1695],"class_list":["post-302936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-antitrust-division","tag-attorney","tag-bob-ruyak","tag-brief","tag-california","tag-carrier","tag-case","tag-department","tag-fire-victim","tag-homeowner","tag-insurer","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lawsuit","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-position","tag-state-farm","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}