Maui Attorney Presses for Insurance Carriers to Make Automatic Payment to Wildfire Survivors

From the press release:

Lahaina, Maui -- Before paying insureds for the contents of their homes destroyed by the Maui Wildfire, insurers are requiring survivors to submit detailed "personal property inventories." Preparing the inventories can take hours or even days.  Many survivors find it traumatic to list all the items lost in the fire.

Maui attorney Lance D. Collins has formally requested that Hawai'i Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito call upon property insurance companies to pay out 100% of coverage limits for loss of contents or personal property without requiring survivors to submit an itemized list or other proof of what they lost in the Maui fire.

Such paperwork "is a burden the people of Lahaina should not be required to bear while the community continues to recover", said Collins. "Insurance commissioners in other jurisdictions have taken similar actions in the wake of wildfires, and the Hawai'i commissioner should do so as well," Collins added.

Lance D. Collins is a Maui attorney who, along with Honolulu attorney Harrison L. Kiehm, leads the Mālama Law Group. The Mālama Law Group represents property owners, renters, businesses and families who have lost loved ones in the Maui fire, having filed one of the first lawsuits arising from the fire that destroyed Lahaina. Collins' and Kiehm's offices have united to form Mālama Law Group. Joining the Mālama Law Group from California is native Hawaiian attorney Kristine Kalama Keala (formerly Meredith), managing partner of Danko Meredith, a preeminent utility wildfire firm that has won over $1 billion in cash compensation for survivors of utility fires.

Letter to Gordon Ito 230905 on Scribd