Singleton Schreiber Partner Michelle Meyers Advocates for Wildfire Survivors in State Farm Enforcement Proceedings
Michelle Meyers, Partner at Singleton Schreiber, was featured by the Daily News in an article titled "Wildfire Survivors Seek Legal Standing in State Farm Enforcement Proceedings," published on June 18, 2026.
Meyers is working pro bono alongside Consumer Watchdog litigation director Will Pletcher to petition the California Department of Insurance for the right of Eaton and Palisades wildfire survivors to formally participate in the state's enforcement proceeding against State Farm General Insurance Company. She represents Every Fire Survivor's Network, a coalition of more than 10,000 wildfire survivors.
The petition seeks to address documented patterns of claims-handling misconduct by State Farm, including findings from a CDI Market Conduct Examination that identified 398 violations across 52% of a random sample of 220 fire claims. The survivors' group is requesting the right to conduct discovery, cross-examine witnesses, and participate in settlement discussions -- arguing that the CDI's proposed fine does not reflect the full scale of harm caused.
"The CDI found the violations, and State Farm admitted the underlying facts. What has been missing from this proceeding is the voice of the people who actually experienced the harm. EFSN's intervention changes that. We will introduce expert statistical evidence showing the 220-claim sample likely understates the total violation count by an order of magnitude, and we will press for a penalty structure that reflects the harm State Farm actually caused and at the scale it actually did it, not a $2 million fine against a $270 billion company," said Meyers.
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