Court filings show that fees and related expenses for lawyers, bankers and restructuring experts advising PG&E and its creditors have added up to nearly $140 million since the company went bust in January, Bloomberg News reported. That’s more than $1 million for every weekday since the case began — an expense that potentially cuts into funds that would go to victims of wildfires started by PG&E’s equipment. Those liabilities are what forced PG&E into the biggest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. If the company exits court protection as planned by June 2020, and bills keep piling up at the current pace, the total could surpass $400 million. “The numbers are eye-popping, but that’s just how much bankruptcy costs,” said Jared Ellias, a professor of bankruptcy law at the University of California Hastings. And that’s not counting the court fight over PG&E’s soon-to-be released reorganization plan, or the millions in adviser fees to get it through the California Public Utilities Commission.
