BATON ROUGE - Proposed legislation that would regulate legal advertising was scheduled to be heard on the House floor today but it was returned to the calender due to a procedural question.
“It's the last part of the session so things get weird but I think it's going to be all right,” said Jim Harris, communications director with the Louisiana Coalition for Common Sense, a group of professional associations, companies and individuals committed to ensuring a fair legal climate.
“We've got the votes to pass it.”
Once enacted, SB 395 will increase transparency in legal advertising by requiring the disclosure of how much of court judgments and settlements actually go to the plaintiff after attorney fees and court costs.
“Many legal advertisements in the state promise 'jackpot justice' but plaintiffs only get a small portion of the amount advertised,” Harris told the Louisiana Record. “This bill seeks to prohibit false promises of big payouts that encourage people to file lawsuits against businesses.”
While SB 395 is pending, SB 418 is scheduled to hit the floor tomorrow and will lower the state’s high personal automotive and high commercial automotive insurance rates if passed.
“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.
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.
“The current law prohibits evidence of what was actually paid by a plaintiff in medical bills and allows only evidence of full-price or 'sticker price' medical bills to be submitted into evidence, without regard to contractual adjustments for health insurance or limits on reimbursement established by public payors,” Harris said. “This allows plaintiffs and their attorneys to recover a windfall that far exceeds both their actual liability for medical care and the costs of health insurance premiums they have paid. This bill significantly modifies and limits the collateral source rule.”
Louisiana has the highest jury trial threshold in the nation at $50,000, according to data from Louisiana Coalition for Common Sense, and Maryland has the next highest threshold at $15,000. Thirty-two states have no jury trial threshold at all.
“This bill would lower Louisiana's jury trial threshold from $50,000 to $5,000 to bring us more in line with other states,” said Harris. “Everyone should have the right to a trial by jury.”