Dear friends,

 

We won. Twice.

 

In just one week, survivors secured two major victories in the State Farm billion-dollar rate hike hearings.
 

These rulings matter not just for us — Eaton and Palisades survivors — but for every Californian who pays insurance premiums. State Farm is the state’s dominant market player. Commissioner Lara himself has admitted he’s received more complaints about State Farm than any other insurer. 

 

If they’re allowed to stiff fire survivors and still walk away with a $1+ billion rate hike, every insurer will copy that playbook.

Commissioner Lara’s lawyers filed a motion to move all hearings online. Their reasoning? Because of the “large number of wildfire claimants in the LA area who are expressing frustration with claims handling experiences” (CDI Motion, 8/18/25).
 

Yes — instead of seeing our complaints as evidence of misconduct, Commissioner Lara tried to spin them into a security threat against his own staff. And to really drive it home, they compared us to Luigi Mangione, the so-called “hot murderer” who assassinated a health insurance CEO in New York.

What?? Pause. We are parents. We are grandparents. We are neighbors and taxpayers. Sweet, slightly tired, post-menopausal us — hardly “hot” and definitely not violent. And yet our tax dollars paid for Commissioner Lara’s team to stand before a judge and argue that we survivors are a danger to public safety.

 

State Farm quickly piled on, insisting “it behooves the parties to accept [CDI’s concerns] as real” 
 

Thankfully, Judge Karl Seligman cut through the nonsense, denying Lara’s motion and giving everyone a civics lesson (Seligman's Ruling):

 

 

The legendary Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfeld applauded the judge's decision, saying:

Survivors are not criminals. Survivors are the public. Survivors are civic leaders. And thanks to Judge Seligman, we stay in the room.

 

That's us below, in the Judge Seligman's hearing room today. Hello world!

Commissioner Lara has been trying for another gambit — a motion to “bifurcate” the case. Translation: split the hearings so State Farm’s $1.29 billion rate hike could be fast-tracked, while scrutiny of its misconduct would be delayed indefinitely (or never heard at all).

 

We at EFSN pushed back hard, warning in our Op-Ed and our Letter to Judge Seligman that this would reward lawbreaking while survivors remain unpaid.

 

Judge Seligman again sided with fairness, issuing a decisive denial.

 

Twice in one week, Judge Seligman sided with transparency, fairness, and the public. And twice, CDI and State Farm were on the other side.

 

Which raises the question: why, in this State Farm proceeding, has Commissioner Lara consistently championed the interests of State Farm — the very company under investigation, and the company he says has generated more complaints than any other — instead of defending the consumers he is sworn to protect?

 

Commissioner Lara calls himself the leader of the nation’s largest consumer protection agency. Yet it took survivors, Consumer Watchdog, and finally a judge to remind him that democracy and transparency are not optional.

 

All our elected Altadena leaders — led by Assemblymember John Harabedian — have called on Lara to stop illegal delays and denials and given him a roadmap to do so. Watch the press conference here: 📹 Video.

 

Assemblymember Harabedian has outlined 5 actions Commissioner Lara can take now to stop insurer misconduct. To support these 5 actions, EFSN has published a detailed 5-Step Action Plan to help Lara know why these actions are urgent and how to implement them under his existing legal authority.

 

Here’s hoping Commissioner Lara will stop the antics — stop pushing forward State Farm’s rate hike in secret, without accountability — and instead focus on doing his job: enforcing the law so L.A. fire survivors can finally get home, and so all Californians can have an insurance system we can depend on.
 

✍️ Add your name to our growing coalition: https://www.efsurvivors.net/stop-insurer-misconduct

 

In solidarity,

Joy Chen
 

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