HMI supports prominent legal team in case involving wildfire damage

For two decades, legal teams have relied on HMI Litigation Support when their cases involve damage to outdoor property. Recently, a West Coast legal practice known for handling complex litigation relied on HMI's experts to measure, assess, and quantify the extent of damage from wildfire.

A large landowner and conservationist lost more than 8,000 acres of trees due to a campfire that quickly grew out of control. HMI's litigation support services included establishing a nation-wide panel of top green industry experts to provide a 360-degree assessment of the loss incident.

Enormous scope of property damage requires HMI expertise

The landowner  suffered catastrophic damage to thousands of acres of land. HMI was contracted to document the tree loss, count all the acreage of dead trees, and estimate the cost to replant and re-sprout the trees.

The loss was massive from a geographic perspective, with more than 8,000 acres impacted. Damage exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, requiring HMI's in-house specialists and selected experts from its national member network to team up to create an evidence-based presentation of the loss.

HMI offers expertise to assist in litigation, claims support, and valuation of outdoor property.

Litigation Support Solutions

HMI created a unique methodology to assess the loss by establishing a panel of subject matter experts capable of providing a 360-degree assessment. Four nationally recognized experts in arboriculture, wildfire restoration, tree valuation, and vegetation management were enlisted to collaborate with HMI staff to measure, assess, and quantify the extent of tree loss.

The scope of HMI's role was to determine the number of wooded acres and loss locations impacted by the event. The team then determined the number of trees and vegetation types impacted, followed by determining the average mortality rate of the trees as a means to calculate the number killed in the wildfire. Finally, HMI formulated a restoration plan using best industry practices to reasonably restore the land to its pre-loss state, calculating the costs to have qualified professionals execute the restoration plan.

Benefits to HMI outdoor property expertise

HMI Litigation Support provides exclusive access to experts who measure, assess, and quantify loss incidents impacting outdoor property. With HMI accelerating a thorough analysis of damage, the scope of loss in this case was appraised at more than $250 million. HMI was able to handle a project of this scope thanks to its coast-to-coast network of the green industry's top professionals. In this case, a panel approach was the most effective way to gather and present intelligence in a fraction of the time that it would normally take.

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