Before it entered bankruptcy, PG&E Corp. paid more than $100 million for professional advice on how to fend off blame for years of deadly wildfires and, when that failed, how to take cover in chapter 11, new court papers show, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Filings on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco give the most complete view yet of how PG&E deployed its legal budget as criticism mounted over its safety practices. California’s largest utility filed for bankruptcy protection at the end of January, swamped by fire damage claims estimated at $30 billion or more. By that point, PG&E had spent $70 million or more to defend itself and its leaders in investigations, regulatory activity and lawsuits stemming from blazes in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The utility had also spent $30 million on advice about bankruptcy, beginning as early as the spring of 2018. The bankruptcy filing froze action in wildfire and shareholder lawsuits and, according to PG&E, prevented the company from making good on promises to pay about $15 million to settle some of the older lawsuits. Lawyers for wildfire victims have protested repeatedly in federal court hearings that people who lost homes and loved ones in the California wildfires are still living in tents and trailers, waiting for money from PG&E. Most fire victims won’t get paid until the end of a chapter 11 case that PG&E has said could take years. PG&E has said it is working on a hardship fund to get money to some victims soon.
