CWSL Professor Kenneth Klein Offers Expertise on Insurance Inequities in Lahaina Fire Aftermath

SAN DIEGO (May 21, 2024) -- Kenneth Klein, Louis and Hermione Brown Professor of Law at California Western School of Law, was recently quoted in Honolulu Civil Beat’s article, “Unequal Treatment By Lenders Is Hurting Lahaina Homeowners,” offering his expertise on how lending banks take advantage of an obscure legal loophole to deprive homeowners of thousands of dollars in interest in insurance payouts. Residents whose houses were destroyed in last year’s fire in Lahaina are the latest group facing this issue and losing out. 

The Civil Beat article quotes widely from Professor Klein’s 2010 paper published in the California Western Law Review in which he explained how only certain states have provisions in place to guarantee that homeowners are paid full interest when they receive insurance settlements. In his paper, Professor Klein wrote, “Many states simply do not require the payment of interest. In those that do, the banks are almost always unaware of it,” as are homeowners. 

Read the Civil Beat article here and Professor Klein’s paper here.