Martin Ricard reported on the lawsuits against PG&E that we filed today on behalf of some of the San Bruno fire victims. Ricard summed up the allegations in the six lawsuits, filed on behalf of nine different victims, succinctly:
According to the lawsuits, the residents’ injuries were a direct result of PG&E’s operation of the pipeline,
The NTSB’s preliminary report on the San Bruno Fire has led some politicians to ask why it took PG&E so long to turn the gas off.
Jackie Speier. . . expressed bewilderment that PG&E failed to send anyone to turn off the ruptured pipe until "33 minutes after 100-foot-high flames . . .were clearly visible from
Safety regulations were supposed to prevent the San Bruno fire. But they didn’t. One reason is that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC president pictured) didn’t do its job. Instead of enforcing the 
regulations, when the CPUC caught PG&E in a violation, it let PG&E slide. Not just once. But more than 400 times in the
The fact of the matter is that Glenview homes aren’t worth today what they were on September 8. That’s because some house hunters who might have considered buying in the Glenview neighborhood before the fire will now fear that the neigborhood is unsafe. Others, in light of all the pain the neighborhood has experienced, will
Not necessarily. If the claim process is proceeding smoothly with open and productive communication between the claimant and the insurer, then the claimant may stay the course. But a qualified attorney can help when the claimant feels:
To assist the
Most victims of the Glenview explosion can’t afford to pay attorneys an hourly rate to investigate the cause of the accident or to take a potential lawsuit to trial. For these people, the doors of the courthouse would be essentially closed were it not for the contingency fee agreement. The contingency fee agreement places
NBC in San Francisco interviewed me in July 
2009 about PG&E’s underground systems. I warned then that PG&E’s whole underground infrastructure was collapsing and that, unless PG&E did something right away, people would be hurt.
They’re just time bombs under the street and PG&E has done nothing, nothing that makes a difference, to stop them from
Many of the San Bruno residents evacuated on September 9th may be categorized as “survivors,” having escaped the Glenview fire without being burned. But even though they suffer no physical injuries, the gas explosion will leave dozens with emotional injuries that will persist for a long time to come.
Generally the law does not require a
PG&E warned its shareholders that deficiencies in its leak detection procedures could r
esult in a major catastrophe. It further warned that the economic cost of the catastrophe could jeopardize the utility’s financial condition. But it didn’t warn its customers.
According to its 2009 Annual Report, PG&E reviewed its own gas leak survey practices in 2008 and found that "improvements
TV reporter Jean Elle interviewed me in my office, noting that the San Bruno blast is "eerily similar" to the Santa Rosa explosion and fire that I handled some years ago. She then put some hard questions to PG&E and got nothing back but double-talk.
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/video.
