Legal Question in Insurance Law in California
An aunt of mine is going through some legal trouble. This past summer her apartment caught on fire and everything in the apartment was lost, she had no renters insurance and had to start from the scratch. She let it go and moved on, however, now the apartment complex insurance is charging my aunt for the damages. The insurance company hired an attorney to collect the money from my aunt, however, my aunt believes she was not at fault, because she wasn't home during the fire. What type of law is this? What kind of attorney should she hire?
2 Answers from Attorneys
It would be an attorney who defends negligence cases.
Just because your aunt wasn't home at the time doesn't mean she's blameless. She might have plugged too many things into the wall, left a pot on a stove, left a cigarette smoldering, etc. It depends on what fire investigators say was the cause, and also whether their investigations were correct, used the proper procedure, reached appropriate conclusions from the evidence, etc. She might give the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. Lawyer Referral and Information Service a call for a referral, or visit http://www.smartlaw.org.
Mr. Cohen's advice is spot-on. I would add, however, that if she just lost everything, and doesn't have some huge savings or investments that could pay for the damage, there is no reason to waste money hiring an attorney to defend the lawsuit. She should just find a bankruptcy attorney to wipe out the claim and then she can really start over.
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