By james art 
The agreement means that the victims and survivors will not have to testify, experiencing the details of the massive inferior to Lahaine, with more than 100 people destroyed thousands of properties and caused about $ 5.5 billion ($ 4.4 billion) damage damage S
Before being scheduled to start Wednesday morning, lawyers met with Judge Peter Cahill, who later announced that a deal had been reached.
It is expected that the lawyers who have reached the deal late on Tuesday will submit documents to the court detailing the agreement in a week.
Some casualties were ready to take the position of witnesses, while others filed pre-recorded testimony, describing the pain, made it even fresher than the recent destruction in Los Angeles.
“Some people are sure they will be disappointed because they believe it was their time to share their story,” says Jacob Lowental, one of the lawyers representing individual claimants.
“Other people will be relieved because they do not have to enter and testify.”
One of the individual claimants is Kevin Baklig, whose wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law and son-in-law, were among the 102 people who are known to have died.
D -Bklig said in a statement that if he was summoned to testify, he would describe how for three agonizing days he was looking for them – from hotel to hotel, shelter to shelter.
“I shook the fragile hope that they may have made it from the island, that they were safe,” he said.
A month and a half passed and the dark reality.
He went to the Philippines to collect DNA samples from his wife’s close relatives there. The corresponding samples remain found in the fire.
In the end, he wore urns holding his remains back to the Philippines.
“The loss left me in a deep, relentless pain,” he said. “There are no words to describe the void I experience, or the weight I carry every day.”
Hawaii Governor Josh Green has announced the settlement of $ 4 billion ($ 3.2 billion in British pounds) – in agreement by the state, the electricity of Hawaiian electric electric, large landowners and others – about a year after the most deadly American fire devastated in 2023 S
At that time, he advertised the speed of the deal to “avoid prolonged and painful lawsuits.”
The process had to set a percentage of two plaintiffs, including some who filed separate lawsuits after losing their family members, homes or business and other victims covered by court cases, including tourists who canceled travel to Maui due to the flames S
Only a nominal part of the settlement should go to tourists whose trips have been delayed or canceled, said earlier d -Lowental.
“The categories of losses that the class claims are just extremely insignificant compared to our losses,” he said.
Class attorneys did not respond to an email from the Associated Press, looking for a comment in the tried and tested process.
In their experience in the sample, they challenged the idea that anyone who has a claim that is worth judging has already done so.
Many people have detained hiring lawyers, he said briefly, because of the break of fire to life, “distrust in the advertising of heavy lawyers and a desire to see how the process plays first.”
Separately, the Supreme Court of the State is considering whether insurers can sue the defendants for the recovery of $ 2 billion ($ 1.6 billion) -Plus they have paid in fire claims or whether their share has to come from $ 4 billion (3, 3, 2 pounds a billion) settlement.
The oral arguments in this case are scheduled for February 6th.
“This is the last big piece to decide before the global agreement moves forward,” said G -n Lowental.