Tort Reform Repairing Louisiana’s Broken Legal Climate

For decades, Louisiana has been a poster child for lawsuit abuse. Year after year, Louisiana has had the second highest insurance rates in the nation. These rates are largely driven by a toxic legal climate that has grown addicted to lawsuits and settlement checks that has, for too long, been protected in the State Capitol by bad laws on the books.

After years of attempts to eliminate the predatory nature of Louisiana’s legal climate, the legislature, in a bi-partisan fashion, passed fair common-sense legislation to lower insurance rates and increase market competition.

House Bill 57, by Speaker Clay Schexnayder, was a major win for Louisiana contractors, all of whom have been hit hard recently by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill was drafted based on input from a wide array of industry stakeholders and passed with broad support. It is a crucial first step to bringing Louisiana’s legal system in line with the rest of the country, lowering car insurance rates, and tackling barriers on economic and job growth that have consistently plagued our state.

There were four major, common-sense planks of HB 57: • Elimination of the ‘seatbelt gag’ provision so that evidence of seatbelt usage can be considered in cases. (Also passed similar languaged in House Bill 55 by Johnson and Senate

Bill 9 by Hewitt). • Collateral Source has been improved to reduce phantom medical bills. • Lowering the jury trial threshold makes it easier to get a trial by jury and will reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits. • Reforming Direct Action helps prevent reasonably high jury awards by keeping the focus of the case on the individuals involved in the accident.

The enactment of the meaningful reforms in HB 57 will help bring competition back to our insurance markets and provide, both, our state’s working families and job creators with affordable insurance options.

ABC of Louisiana played an integral role in the passage of HB 57. The Louisiana Legislature should be applauded for passing such a pivotal legislation. Governor Edwards should be commended for signing it into law (ACT No. 37). We look forward to future conversations and legislation to make Louisiana’s legal climate even better for contractors, job creators, and individuals.