Gerald Singleton

The 2015 Butte Fire, the 2017 North Bay fires and the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed homes and their contents, displaced families and interrupted work. Survivors faced temporary housing costs and medical expenses. Businesses lost equipment and customers. Claims also arose from injuries, deaths and emotional harm.

PG&E’s January 2019 Chapter 11 filing gathered those individual tort claims into one reorganization. Negotiations had to address how much the company could commit to fire victims while emerging from bankruptcy.

The confirmed plan established a Fire Victim Trust valued at $13.5 billion, effective July 1, 2020. Its opening assets included approximately $5.4 billion in cash and a substantial block of PG&E stock. Additional payments and the sale of assets supplied funds for later distributions.

Documenting Each Loss

The Trust divided claims into seven categories: real property, personal property, personal income loss, business loss, other out-of-pocket expenses, wrongful death or personal injury, and emotional distress. A single questionnaire could include several categories.

Singleton represented claimants who needed to assemble evidence of those separate losses. One family might document a home’s value and contents, months of alternative housing, lost wages, medical treatment and emotional harm. The processor reviewed each component, requested missing information and issued a Determination Notice containing the aggregate approved award.

Claimants could accept the determination or seek reconsideration and appeal with supplemental evidence. Singleton’s clients faced those choices within the same procedures as other survivors. Their awards became final after acceptance or completion of review and supplied the basis for later payments.

Equal Percentages

The Trust’s assets could not cover every finalized award in full. Bankruptcy orders and Trust documents required eligible claimants to receive the same proportion of their awards, regardless of when the claims were approved or how large the losses were. The shortfall reflected the available fund, while the Determination Notices retained the value assigned to each claimant’s losses.

Payments began at 30% of finalized awards—thirty cents for each approved dollar. As additional funding and stock sales increased the assets available, the percentage rose to 45%, 60%, 66% and then 70%, effective October 24, 2024.

Part of the recovery depended on the market value of shares in PG&E, the company facing the wildfire claims. The Trust completed its final stock sale in December 2023. Subsequent distributions continued to use the common percentage applied to all eligible awards.

Counsel and Oversight

Claimant professionals and the Tort Claimants Committee selected the nine-member Oversight Committee to review the Trust and represent fire-victim interests. Singleton served with lawyers and advocates from different firms and institutions. His committee responsibilities concerned the shared administration; his representation of individual clients required attention to their separate claims.

The trustee directed the Trust, the claims administrator oversaw resolution procedures and BrownGreer processed claims. Other specialists handled appeals, insurance and financial operations. The committee reviewed that work from the claimant side, including payment speed, consistent treatment and the resources available for distribution. The bankruptcy court retained its authority over the Trust.

Fire survivors and public officials raised questions about the pace of payments, administration costs and transparency. The trustee and Oversight Committee disputed criticisms of the Trust’s spending and described the work needed to establish and operate the claims process.

The Final Distribution

By August 31, 2026, all 71,787 claimants who submitted claims questionnaires had received finalized Determination Notices. The Trust reported 66,530 eligible claimants and payments to 66,171 of them. It had approved approximately $19.57 billion in awards and paid approximately $13.72 billion to claimants.

The Trust also pursued claims against Davey Tree Surgery Company and related parties. On June 26, 2026, the bankruptcy court found that the settlement’s payment conditions had been satisfied. The settling parties were to fund a qualified settlement account within thirty days, with reimbursable litigation expenses finalized before the Trust received its share. Trustee Cathy Yanni expected those proceeds to fund the final pro rata increase.

On September 10, Yanni announced that the Trust had received all funds from the Davey settlement. She scheduled a final additional payment of 1.25% for October 14, 2026, bringing the aggregate distribution to 71.25% of approved awards. The increase applies through the common distribution process, including to Singleton’s eligible clients. Yanni said there would be no further pro rata distributions after that payment.

Beyond the Trust

Singleton began his career in 2000 at Federal Defenders of San Diego, representing criminal defendants in the Southern District of California and before the Ninth Circuit. In 2003, he opened his own practice, which developed into Singleton Schreiber.

His wildfire work has included court-appointed liaison roles in the Thomas, Woolsey, Bobcat, Kincade, Zogg and Dixie fire litigation. He has also expanded into environmental cases for individuals and public entities, including PFAS contamination. In 2023, he and his team brought a medical-monitoring claim addressing exposure to carcinogens and other toxins in wildfire smoke.