Attorney Jeff Benion

Jeff has nearly fifteen years of experience working in wildfire litigation.

From 2003 through 2007, Jeff worked on behalf of Allstate Insurance Company and State Farm on cases relating to the undervaluing of homeowners’ insurance claims from the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego, a fire that destroyed thousands of homes and almost 300,000 acres.

In the wake of San Diego’s 2007 wildfires, Jeff used this knowledge from his prior work for insurance companies in wildfire litigation, and was able to help hundreds of homeowners recover millions of dollars in cases against San Diego Gas & Electric and Sempra Energy, for the power companies’ negligent acts. Jeff was appointed the manager of the evidence produced by the power companies that was used in all lawsuits brought in San Diego on behalf of over 3,000 homeowners.

In 2011, Jeff worked on the Caughlin Ranch fire in Reno, Nevada, in litigation against the power company when negligently-placed powerlines arced during a storm destroying hundreds of acres in a residential neighborhood.

Jeff’s clients have come to rely on him as a passionate and resourceful advocate – who gets things done.  Jeff is quick to point out that he works only with those who have been injured or harmed themselves or by damage to their property – as opposed to lawyers who may work for, and protect the rights of, insurance companies and corporations.  If a case involves catastrophic damage to body or property, a client will find no better team member than Jeff.  As an experienced trial attorney, Jeff has been in dozens of jury trials and secured outstanding results for his clients. Jeff serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego trial lawyers association, representing individuals who have been wronged by insurance companies and large businesses. He also serves as the Chair of the State Bar of California’s section on technology, and has lectured many times throughout the country on trial strategy and techniques.  Eager to give back to the next generation of attorneys and paralegals, Jeff is a popular adjunct professor at both University of California – San Diego extension and Cuyamaca College, as well as an invited guest speaker at the LegalTech conference in New York and the California Alliance of Paralegal Association annual meeting.

In his spare time, when not spending time with his wife and three boys, Jeff enjoys volunteering in the community as a coach to a local high school’s mock trial team, and with the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego’s Community Outreach Committee, working with children of homeless parents.  He is a regular contributor to Above the Law, a web site educating and providing news to other attorneys, and a winner of the San Diego County Freemason of the Year.

Jeff earned two undergraduate degrees, one in Russian and Soviet Studies and another in Political Science and International Relations from the University of California – San Diego, plus a law degree from University of San Diego.  He was admitted to California’s State Bar in 2011, and is also admitted to practice in the United States District Court’s Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of California.

Jeff enjoys membership in Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, Consumer Attorneys of California, the San Diego County Bar Association and the Association for Justice.  In addition to his numerous other honors over the years, Jeff has been named “Best of the Bar” by the San Diego Business Journal.