PacifiCorp Wildfire Lawsuit: Verdict, Reversal, and Trial Pause

The PacifiCorp wildfire lawsuit is paused as of mid-2026. A Multnomah County jury found the utility negligent, reckless, and willful for keeping power lines energized during the 2020 Labor Day windstorm, and mini-trials for individual property owners had produced more than $1 billion in damages by early 2026. Then in April 2026, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the underlying liability verdict on a jury-instruction error, and the trial judge stayed nearly all remaining damages trials the following month. Plaintiffs have petitioned the Oregon Supreme Court for review, and what happens to roughly 2,500 class members now depends on whether that court takes the case.¹

What the Lawsuit Is About

The case, Jeanyne James, et al. v. PacifiCorp, et al. (Case No. 20CV33885), was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court and assigned to Judge Steffan Alexander. It covers four of the fires that tore through Oregon during the Labor Day 2020 windstorm: the Echo Mountain Complex fire near Otis, the South Obenchain fire east of Eagle Point, the 242 fire near Chiloquin, and the Santiam Canyon fires east of Salem.² Those four fires damaged more than 2,000 properties.³

The core allegation is that PacifiCorp should have shut off power before the storm and didn’t. Hours before the winds arrived, the Oregon Governor’s chief of staff convened a conference call with the utilities, and state officials explicitly advised the companies to de-energize. Doug Grafe, then chief of fire protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry, later said he made the “gravity of the situation” clear and warned that “more fires will occur from utilities” if lines stayed energized.⁴ PacifiCorp did not shut off power. At least one smaller Oregon utility, Consumers Power Inc., did, and had no ignitions.⁵

Internal messages disclosed in court showed PacifiCorp employees reacting in real time. On the morning of September 8, a company fire data scientist wrote to a senior engineer: “God the fires near our service territories are right underneath our lines.” Of the Echo Mountain fire, the same employee wrote that it “started under our transmission lines.”⁵ PacifiCorp has maintained throughout the litigation that the wildfires were an “unavoidable natural disaster.”

Who Is in the Class

The court certified the class in May 2022. Members include anyone who, as of September 7, 2020, owned or lived on property within the burn zones of the four fires, plus owners of mobile homes or personal property in those areas that sustained fire damage.² The class runs to roughly 2,500 members.¹ Three firms serve as lead class counsel: Stoll Stoll Berne Lokting and Shlachter, Keller Rohrback, and Edelson PC.⁶

The 2023 Verdict and the Mini-Trial Awards

The case was split into two phases. Phase I addressed classwide liability. Phase II worked through individual damages in a series of mini-trials, with groups of plaintiffs presenting evidence of their property losses and emotional distress.

Phase I ended on June 12, 2023. The jury found PacifiCorp negligent, reckless, and willful; found that the conduct harmed the whole class; and found the company liable for punitive damages. Jurors set the punitive multiplier at 0.25 times each plaintiff’s economic and non-economic damages. Under Oregon law, 70% of any punitive award goes to the state Department of Justice to fund crime-victim services.⁷

The mini-trials produced large awards. A January 2024 jury awarded $62 million to nine homeowners. A March 2024 jury awarded $42.4 million to ten more.⁸³⁹ Roughly 150 additional trials involving about 1,500 plaintiffs were queued through 2028.¹⁰

The April 2026 Appeals Court Reversal

On April 8, 2026, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the Phase I liability verdict. A three-judge panel led by Judge Anna Joyce ruled that Judge Alexander had committed a prejudicial error when he told jurors they could “assume that the evidence at the trial applies to all class members.” Much of the trial evidence concerned specific fires and specific ignition points, the panel wrote, and the four fires were more than 100 miles apart in some cases. Jurors could not reasonably be told that evidence about one fire applied to plaintiffs affected by a different one.³

The reversal was procedural. The panel did not rule that PacifiCorp was not liable, and it did not rule that the trial evidence was insufficient. It sent the case back to Judge Alexander to reconsider whether the class action structure was appropriate, and the more than $1 billion in mini-trial awards was put on hold.¹

Plaintiffs’ attorney Jay Edelson called the decision a “procedural setback” that did not reach the merits of the negligence claims. Plaintiffs’ filings argued that the appeals court acknowledged evidence supported liability and reversed based on a “single sentence in a standard instruction.”¹¹¹¹²

The Trial Pause

On May 13, 2026, plaintiffs’ attorneys filed a petition asking the Oregon Supreme Court to review the reversal, arguing the panel applied an “erroneous rule of class-action law” and misunderstood the trial record.¹ Nine days later, on May 22, Judge Alexander granted PacifiCorp’s request to pause damages trials. The stay covers roughly 150 trials and about 1,500 plaintiffs and stays in effect until the Supreme Court either denies review, issues a decision on the merits, or 14 days pass following a reversal of the appeals court ruling.¹⁰

One group is exempt. Twenty-three Echo Mountain survivors on Deerlane Loop, who are not formal class members, still have a trial scheduled for September 2027.¹⁰ Pre-trial work, including discovery, settlement negotiations, and mediation, was set to resume on August 10, 2026, with a status conference scheduled for August 7.⁹

Settlements Outside the Class Action

Most claims against PacifiCorp have never gone to a jury. As of November 2025, the company reported it had settled 4,200 wildfire claims for $1.6 billion, more than 64% of claims related to the 2020 Oregon Labor Day fires. By April 2026, the total had grown to roughly $2.2 billion across approximately 4,600 claimants.¹³³

Settlement amounts have been far smaller per person than jury awards. A November 2025 settlement covered 1,434 victims for $150 million, averaging about $104,600 each. A June 2024 settlement covered 403 plaintiffs for $178 million, averaging roughly $442,000 each. Plaintiffs’ counsel Matthew Preusch said the settlements give victims “50 times less than the average jury verdict,” which has averaged $5.3 million per plaintiff who went to trial. PacifiCorp president Ryan Flynn called settlement the “fairest and most efficient way to resolve wildfire litigation.”¹³ Attorneys in the case have accused PacifiCorp of working with outside law firms to steer survivors away from the class action and into lower-value settlements.

The Beachie Creek Exclusion

Not every Santiam Canyon claimant is on the same footing. PacifiCorp has consistently maintained that the Beachie Creek fire, the largest of the Santiam Canyon blazes, was caused by lightning on federal land near Mount Jefferson rather than by its equipment, and it has excluded Beachie Creek claims from settlement offers.¹

In March 2025, the Oregon Department of Forestry released a report that largely supported the company’s position. After a four-and-a-half-year investigation involving more than 180 interviews and thousands of pages of documentation, state investigators concluded that the widespread destruction in the Santiam Canyon was caused by embers carried from the lightning-caused Beachie Creek fire on federal land, not by PacifiCorp equipment. The report acknowledged that PacifiCorp power lines started seven smaller fires in the area but said residents and firefighters extinguished them.¹⁴¹⁵

The report contradicts the 2023 jury verdict and earlier U.S. Forest Service statements that attributed at least 13 Santiam Canyon fires to downed power lines. Plaintiffs’ attorney Cody Berne criticized the investigation for failing to incorporate trial evidence and for acknowledging that investigators could not analyze key electrical equipment because PacifiCorp crews had removed it during restoration work before investigators arrived. The U.S. Forest Service also refused to allow its employees to be interviewed by state investigators.¹⁴¹⁶ Legal experts noted the report is unlikely to overturn the jury verdict, because appellate courts focus on legal and procedural issues rather than re-litigating factual findings. PacifiCorp has said it remains willing to settle “reasonable claims” tied to the Echo Mountain, South Obenchain, and 242 fires while continuing to contest Beachie Creek claims.¹

What Happens Next

Everything now turns on the Oregon Supreme Court. If it takes the case and reverses the appeals court, the class action structure is restored and the mini-trials can resume where they left off. If it declines to hear the case, or hears it and affirms, the appeals court ruling stands and class members would need to return to court to re-prove PacifiCorp’s liability, potentially as individuals rather than as a class.¹⁷

In the meantime, pre-trial work is scheduled to continue, settlement talks remain open, and PacifiCorp is separately seeking approximately $6 million in legal expenses from wildfire survivors.¹⁷ For property owners inside the certified class, the practical choice is the one they have faced throughout: wait for the courts to resolve the class structure and potentially recover jury-scale damages, or accept a direct settlement now at a fraction of that amount. For anyone with a Beachie Creek claim, the company’s position remains that the fire was not its responsibility, and settlement is not on the table.

1
The Oregonian. Oregon Wildfire Victims Class Action Case Mostly Paused After PacifiCorp Wins Appeal
2
PacifiCorp Fire Litigation. James v. PacifiCorp Class Action
3
Reuters. Berkshire-Owned PacifiCorp Utility Wins Ruling Related to Oregon Wildfire Damages
4
OPB. Oregon Officials Wanted Utilities to Shut Down Power Lines Before Labor Day Fires
5
Statesman Journal. Judge Rules PacifiCorp Can Face Punitive Damages in Labor Day Oregon Wildfires Lawsuit
6
PacifiCorp Fire Litigation. James v. PacifiCorp FAQ
7
OPB. Punitive Damages Assessed for PacifiCorp Role in Oregon Wildfires
8
ClassAction.org. PacifiCorp Kept Powerlines Energized Labor Day Weekend Despite Clear Wildfire Risk
9
Keller Rohrback. PacifiCorp Fire Litigation
10
Canyon Weekly. Judge Grants Request to Pause Trials
11
Law.com. Oregon Wildfire Victims File DQ Motion Against Appellate Judge Who Reversed PacifiCorp Verdict
12
PacifiCorp. Appellants Response to Respondents Motion to Disqualify Judge
13
Statesman Journal. PacifiCorp Reaches $150M Settlement With 1,434 Fire Victims
14
OPB. Oregon Fire Officials Say PacifiCorp Didn’t Cause Santiam Fire
15
Willamette Week. New Oregon Department of Forestry Report Says PacifiCorp Wasn’t Responsible for Santiam Canyon Fire
16
Statesman Journal. Oregon Department of Forestry Report on PacifiCorp 2020 Santiam Wildfires
17
OPB. Oregon Wildfire PacifiCorp Settlement Lawsuit