Damages in Wildfire Litigation

Phillip Shaverdian and Robert Wright

Phillip Shaverdian is an appellate fellow at Horvitz & Levy LLP, where he works alongside the firm’s attorneys on a variety of projects, including drafting briefs filed in both state and federal appellate courts. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2015 and his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 2019.

Robert H. Wright is one of Horvitz & Levy LLP’s managing partners. He has been counsel of record in closely-watched appeals raising issues of statewide importance and has presented over 30 arguments before the state and federal appellate courts, including arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and each of the districts of the California Court of Appeal.

As wildfires have grown ever more destructive in California, wildfire litigation has grown ever more important. Central to this litigation are statutes that have dramatic impacts on the remedies available in these cases. California enacted these statutes in decades past to protect agrarian interests. The statutes preceded California’s current challenges of urbanization, weather volatility, and climate change. As wildfires increasingly threaten California, the resulting litigation has challenged courts in applying these agrarian statutes to the California of today.