Individual lawsuits filed against Portland General Electric for wildfire damage caused by downed power lines
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PORTLAND, OR (October 23, 2020) – Singleton Law Firm, a leading West Coast fire litigation law firm, recently filed a lawsuit against Portland General Electric (PGE) for its negligence in causing the Santiam Canyon fires earlier this year. Singleton Law Firm has joined forces with Greenspoon Marder LLP, a national law firm with more than 200 attorneys and an office in Portland, Oregon, to prosecute the 2020 Oregon wildfire cases.
The Santiam Canyon Fire started on September 7, 2020. Despite a forecasted windstorm, the power companies serving Santiam Canyon did not de-energize high-risk power lines, leading to as many as 13 separate fires from downed power lines in between Detroit and Mehama.
Singleton Law Firm has represented more than 10,000 victims of utility fires, in multiple states, and has recovered approximately $1 billion in settlements and verdicts for its clients.
Greenspoon’s lead attorney, Kristin Stankiewicz, is both an experienced fire litigator and a victim of the 2020 Oregon wildfires herself.
“We all are aware of the devastating effects of the 2020 fires, and we are committed to obtaining justice for the victims,” Stankiewicz said.
Gerald Singleton, founder and senior partner of Singleton Law Firm, stressed that this suit is not a class action.
“While class actions work well when used properly, they are not the correct tool for resolving large fire cases,” Singleton said. “The damages each individual victim suffers are unique. It is impossible to put fire victims in representative classes and award set amounts to each class member. We represent more than 100 victims of the 2020 Oregon fires and handle each case individually.”
Singleton Law Firm has been fighting on behalf of fire victims since 1993 and represented thousands of clients affected by West Coast fires, including the 2007 San Diego Fires, the 2015 Butte Fire, the 2017 North Bay and Thomas Fires, the 2018 Camp and Woolsey Fires and the 2019 Kincade Fire. Mr. Singleton is a member of the Trust Oversight Committee for the $13.5 billion PG&E Fire Victims Trust, which was created to compensate fire victims following PG&E’s 2019 bankruptcy.
The lawsuit is available here and at www.LawsuitPressRelease.com. For more information, please visit www.slffirm.com.
-end-