NO 2007 Guejito Fire cases, as designated by SDG&E, are being settled or mediated contrary to rumors disseminated to the San Diego Fire community.  This update is to continue our practice to provide accurate information to protect homeowner interests.  This CARE 2007 wildfire litigation update is generated, too, by inquiries from fire victims who are being told, wrongly, Guejito Fire cases are being mediated and will soon be settled.  (In response to complaints to CARe by the "San Diego Fire Victims Lawyers", this message is not intended to interfere with representation of any particular attorney.)

SDG&E refuses to mediate ANY case it designated as “Guejito Fire” including Escondido, The Trails and Rancho Bernardo.  While we believe the designation may be wrong, SDG&E, as we understand, is not willing to consider mediation on any of these cases until the Cox Communication liability is resolved between these two entities.  Resolution will involve extensive legal work and could take some time.

In fact, as numerous calls to CARe revealed, only one attorney has settled ALL of his Witch and Rice Fire cases.  CARe is receiving calls from people with other attorneys that indicate Witch and Rice Fire cases are settling slowly and on an individual, one-by-one basis.  This process unfortunately could take time especially for those fire victims at the end of the schedule.

To repeat prior updates, if you have not hired an attorney to settle with SDG&E and Cox Communications, CARe recommends for you to achieve your best results, you consider  an attorney with extensive experience, with appropriately documented and professionally presented cases, and with the financial resources to prosecute major litigation.

Make certain any attorney’s contingency fee contract is based on your NET award and not your GROSS award. In a NET fee agreement, you can receive a larger share of any settlement than in a GROSS fee agreement. Your attorney should also not require any “up-front” out of pocket costs to you.  This is particularly important for Guejito designated cases as costs could be considerable due to Cox Communication litigation.  In a GROSS fee agreement you will pay attorneys fees on costs.  The higher the costs the more your attorney gets of your settlement amount!  In a NET fee agreement you do not pay attorney fees on costs

If you have any questions please call CARe at 818-216-0123 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you have any questions or need to determine the best way to proceed with the approaching legal deadline. Be aware that some portions of your damages may not be available because of the expiration of some statutes of limitation.

CARe, Community Assisting Recovery, Inc. is a 501c3 not-for-profit corporation providing free educational services to disaster victims since 1994.