{"id":773343,"date":"2026-05-04T20:39:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/773343\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:39:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:39:28","slug":"california-penalizes-state-farm-over-its-handling-of-insurance-claims-after-los-angeles-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/773343\/","title":{"rendered":"California penalizes State Farm over its handling of insurance claims after Los Angeles wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 California&#8217;s top insurance regulator says the state is seeking millions of dollars in penalties from State Farm after an investigation found the insurance company violated state law while handling claims from the 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.<\/p>\n<p>Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said Monday that State Farm violated the law hundreds of times.<\/p>\n<p>Lara\u00a0launched the investigation\u00a0last June after survivors of the Palisades and\u00a0Eaton fires\u00a0said that the state&#8217;s largest home insurer was delaying and mishandling claims regarding damage to their homes and possible contamination from smoke.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/show\/california-faces-insurance-crisis-as-homeowners-lose-coverage-amid-extreme-weather\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>WATCH:<\/strong> California faces insurance crisis as homeowners lose coverage amid extreme weather<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our investigation found that State Farm delayed, underpaid, and buried policyholders in red tape at the worst moment of their lives. That is unacceptable, and we are taking decisive action to hold them accountable,&#8221; Lara said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The two fires were devastating \u2014 they led to the deaths of 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.<\/p>\n<p>The department looked at 220 random claims filed to State Farm and found nearly 400 violations. They included underpayment and slow or inadequate claim processing. State Farm received more than 11,000 claims from the Los Angeles wildfires, accounting for roughly a third of all claims filed, state officials said. The department said thousands of people might be affected by the unlawful behaviors.<\/p>\n<p>The final amount of penalties will be recommended by an administrative judge and finalized by Lara.<\/p>\n<p>State Farm is the second insurance company to face legal actions from the state over its handling of LA fire claims. The department is also seeking\u00a0remedies against the FAIR Plan\u00a0for denying smoke damage claims. The plan is an insurance pool that all the major private insurers pay into, and the plan then issues policies to people who can&#8217;t get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure.<\/p>\n<p>State Farm didn&#8217;t immediately respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\n                    A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy.\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"invite_body\">\n                    Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue.\n                <\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/give.newshour.org\/page\/88646\/donate\/1?ea.tracking.id=pbs_news_sept_2025_article&amp;supporter.appealCode=N2509AW1000100\" class=\"donation-link ga-click-funding ga-click-ender-funding\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    Donate now<\/p>\n<p>                <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 California&#8217;s top insurance regulator says the state is seeking millions of dollars in penalties&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":773344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-773343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116518241371576865","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}