If the utility is a government entity, you may have a fairly short period of time in which to file a tort claim notice, or be barred.
They may have forms on your county judicial web site.
You can rep yourself at a utility commission appeal hearing can’t you?
If as you say you’re facing thousands in repair costs, and I suppose in the Golden state a raft of regulations, it is definitely worth the cost of at least one meeting with an attorney competent in this area.
Explain you aren’t prepared to sign a fee agreement, you just want a short appointment while explaining the nub of the matter to his secretary/paralegal so s/he can do some initial research, for which you may be charged.
About every third Californo is a lawyer, right? So finding one shouldn’t be a problem.
Alas, it is not. This is a huge private company. Regulated out the kazoo and down the wazoo by the PUC in California. . . but they moved this damn meter for their purposes and leave me holding the bag for their installed piping without a "so-by-your-leave," so they can get out from under any obligation for its maintenance. . . and so their meter reader doesn't have to walk so far and THEY don't have to pay him an hourly wage for a few extra minutes to do that walk.
At this point, I have no idea what the cost might be. I don't know how deep they buried the pipe or even where, exactly this leak is. I have an appointment in the morning with a plumbing company.
I do recall, some time ago, PG&E mapped where we could NOT put in fence posts due to the location of the gas pipe they now say is not theirs and/or unauthorized. But frankly, I don't recall when. Probably when we first put in the drive way to the back house after my grandmother died and it first became a rental (Gramma didn't drive). . . 1977? No, it was before that because my grandmother was in a nursing home for several years when she died. . . so, 1970 to 1971. . . so the meter had to have been moved after that. We had to dig the post holes to avoid the flags they put in showing where the line ran. Unfortunately, that fence is long gone, replaced with a repositioned, shorter and smaller fence line.