Pundits, politicians and attorneys are prone to pointing out that America is a nation of laws rather than a nation of men, or women for that matter. Whether this was the original intention of our revolutionary founders, America has proven proficient at generating laws, not to mention regulations, ordinances, codes and standards. While all this attention to containing human and commercial misbehavior is cloaked with good intentions, compliance is often well beyond the capacity of most individuals to comprehend the actual scope of what is required to remain an upstanding and legally observant citizen.

Just visit your local library and take a glance at the volumes of Colorado statutes for starters. Each year an additional volume is published with provisions adopted by the Legislature during the previous legislative session. Stories appear in what is left of the press recounting tales, ranging from the tragic to the amusing, of innocents who run afoul of the law. It turns out even our enforcers can be caught by surprise by discoveries of nefarious violations of the civic order. You may have heard about the thriving black market in live crayfish delivered (often flown into the Centennial state during the dark of night) to Cajun restaurants. It turns out, as an invasive, non-native species of crustacean, such importation is against the law.

It turns out neither the fish wholesalers, nor the restaurateurs who purchase their crayfish and certainly not the Cajun cuisine aficionados dining on them, have been aware of their criminality. State inspectors for that matter only stumbled across these violations by chance. Colorado’s waters are currently free of crayfish however, if not from fresh-water mussels. The emerald ash borer is believed to have arrived here in a load of firewood carried by RV to Boulder from New England. The law simply can’t anticipate every potential invasive vector. (Hint: have your ash trees treated before the Asian borers reach them. Containment has failed.)

It was also reported recently that much of rural Colorado is experiencing a shortage of lawyers. This was flabbergasting news, since comics have long noted, “Any town too small to support a single lawyer can always support two.” This acknowledgment of Americans’ natural litigiousness reflects the fact that our courts are burdened far more from lawsuits than they are with violent crimes. No better example is available than our former President, who has devoted much of his life to suing and being sued — allegedly approaching a thousand times. There’s no shortage of potential grievances. I suspect the student debt facing law school graduates drives them onto the Front Range where potential clients are far more numerous.

It appears the Marshall Fire in December of 2021 is about to produce a bonanza for Colorado lawyers. With more than two billion dollars in assessed losses, nearly 200 insurance firms, together with 150 homeowners and small businesses, as well as the potential for another 1,800 litigants who also lost properties, the usual 30% attorney fees could easily throw off $600 million in earnings. It’s not quite up to the killings from national class action suits, but for Colorado it’s a gold mine. The Boulder Sheriff has graciously served up a sweetheart of a “deep pockets” target in Xcel Energy to plaintiffs. Who will lose any sleep over picking their pockets?

While all parties are lawyering up, we should pause to inquire whether the identification of Xcel as a culprit constitutes a solid charge. No one is filing suit against the cult-like Twelve Tribes hippie haven that is the known primary contributor to the firestorm which destroyed so many homes. They, of course, offer little opportunity for financial recovery. Although we have family members who lost their home, the first red flag, if you will, is why it took 18 months to conjure a link to Xcel? Preliminary legal filings proffer the argument that the electrical utility should have immediately recognized its aging infrastructure was susceptible to interruption from a freak windstorm and, accordingly, rushed forth to shut off their equipment. Really? Any sudden shutdown would have produced their own lawsuits.

Since when has a failure to anticipate “acts of God” been regarded as negligence? Undoubtedly, a jury will be tempted to demand Xcel compensate everyone’s losses – with special empathy for those without adequate insurance. Who will actually pay for such a settlement? As a regulated utility, you can bet these costs will eventually creep back into Colorado’s electric rates.

If we’re lucky, they may be spread across all Xcel customers in neighboring states. It’s unlikely to be Xcel’s shareholders. California has bankrupted its largest electric utility by affixing blame for recent wildfires on the company, some likely deserved, but is this the precedent we should pursue? Who do you think is bailing out Pacific Gas and Electric where a kilowatt hour costs double what we pay? Their customers.