Sensitive documents exposed a flawed algorithm harming California wildfire survivors. A Pulitzer-winning series followed.

San Francisco Chronicle reporters uncovered how insurers rely on faulty software that keeps survivors from rebuilding their lives

While digging through the LexisNexis CourtLink database — a repository that houses court cases and documents — investigative and data reporter Susie Neilson stumbled across the kind of information that gives a journalist pause.

It’s also the kind of information that would lead to an investigation so comprehensive and consequential that it would earn the San Francisco Chronicle the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.