California Wine Country Wildfire Litigation to be Coordinated in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — A California state court judge has designated San Francisco as the centralized venue for all pending and future lawsuits filed against electric utility PG&E Corporation for its alleged role in the recent Northern California wine country wildfires.

In a Jan. 4 order, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow said that several factors favored coordination in a single proceeding, rejecting PG&E’s request to spread the cases among five different judges sitting in the counties where the fires occurred.

“Coordinating the claims into distinct proceedings based on the fire at issue will likely cause unnecessary procedural delays,” …