For nearly the past 5 years StoneTurn has been assisting, in various capacities, on consulting and forensic work stemming from wildfires caused by aging Northern California power lines belonging Pacific Gas & Electric (“PG&E”).
On January 14, 2019, PG&E announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to its liability for the catastrophic 2015, 2017 and 2018 wildfires in Northern California. StoneTurn was initially retained by counsel on behalf of the tort claimants committee to provide expert and economic consulting assistance in the PG&E bankruptcy. StoneTurn’s forensic accountants, economists, statisticians, data analytics, bankruptcy and valuation experts assisted with the estimation of damage claims of the tort claimants and other related consulting work. Our professionals developed many complex analyses to estimate a wide range of damages suffered by claimants working with supporting subject matter experts in various fields. In 2020 the PG&E Fire Victim Trust was established from the bankruptcy of PG&E to offer an efficient and equitable claim review process to compensate Fire Victims for damages caused by the 2015 Butte, 2017 North Bay, and 2018 Camp Fires.
StoneTurn is currently assisting the Trustee, Cathy Yanni, Claims Administrator, and Processor, with certain aspects of claims evaluation to provide compensation to individual wildfire victims, including families and businesses, and certain other parties with wildfire-related claims. StoneTurn has developed economic/financial modeling tools to assist with the assessment of claims for economic damages caused by the fires. As of December 31, 2023, the Trustee had issued Determination Notices for every submitted Claims Questionnaire and paid $11 billion to claimants. Over 40,000 submitted Claims Questionnaires were submitted.