NEW ORLEANS – As Louisiana businesses reopen, the threat of unwarranted lawsuits could stifle the struggling state economy as it reorganizes and re emerges, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) warned.
LABI believes the legislature and the governor have critical roles to play in preventing opportunistic lawsuits that can cripple businesses as they reopen and face the post-shutdown marketplace.
“Louisiana’s economy is experiencing an unprecedented crisis,” LABI president Stephen Waguespack said through the LABI website. HIs statement was accompanied LABI Policy recommendations.
An industry trade group wants Louisiana lawmakers to protect businesses from unwarranted lawsuits as they reopen.
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To strengthen the business climate, LABI cited critical areas that lawmakers can address to protect businesses.
Infrastructure companies, healthcare facilities and their workers, first responders and producers of personal protective equipment (PPE) need legislative protection, Waguespack said in the policy recommendations.
“As businesses start to recover, they should be able to focus on opening their doors without living in constant fear of being sued,” Waguespack told the Louisiana Record.
Two persistent barriers to business growth are coastal litigation and high auto insurance rates, he said, addiing that the pandemic has allowed high auto insurance rates and the litigious climate over coastal remediation to cause more financial problems for Louisiana’s job creators.
Reform of auto insurance rates could be delivered today as SB 418, which would lower the state’s high personal automotive and high commercial automotive insurance rates, is scheduled to be taken to vote.
As previously reported, Sen. Talbot’s Omnibus Premium Reduction Act of 2020 - also known as SB 418 - would reduce the threshold for a jury trial and limit personal injury plaintiff’s recovery of medical expenses to the amount actually paid to the healthcare provider by the insurer or Medicare rather than the amount billed.
“It would bring Louisiana's laws closer to some of the other civil justice reforms that have occurred throughout much of the nation,” said Harris in an interview.
LABI policy recommendations suggest that state policymakers supplement the liability protections afforded to certain products and practices by the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act.
Some of the emergency responders and healthcare workers who help protect us during COVID-19 and other disasters have very limited liability protections under existing laws, Waguespack said. That needs to be remedied, he said.
“Louisiana should limit the potential legal liability of anyone who produces, distributes, donates or uses PPE in accordance with government standards and ensure those protections extend to hand sanitizers and disinfecting products recommended by the federal government,” LABI said in its policy recommendations.
LABI is cautioning legislators against short-sighted attempts to transfer COVID-19 related costs from governments to businesses through lawsuits. The spread of COVID has already drastically increased the fiscal burden on our state and its cities, parishes and other local government entities. LABI warned policymakers not to pass COVID-19 related costs on to businesses. Such actions will stifle the potential of the re emerging economy, Waguespack said.
“Working together to restart our economy and open the pipelines for tax-generating activity is the only way Louisiana and our communities will recover from the economic effects of this crisis,” Waguespack said on the LABI website.