Louisiana this month earned a spot on the American Tort Reform Foundation’s “Everlasting Judicial Hellholes” list, placing the Pelican State among seven jurisdictions that were cited for chronic civil justice problems.
The ATRA’s latest analysis comes on the 20th anniversary of its Judicial Hellholes reports, in which Louisiana has played a starring role for years.
“The campaign calls out those jurisdictions that appear on the report year after year – including Louisiana,” Lana Venable, executive director of Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch, told the Louisiana Record in an email. “From unfounded coastal lawsuits to exorbitant trial-lawyer advertising to high auto injury claims, it’s no wonder that Louisiana has been a staple on the list for 11 years, with an additional three years on the report’s ‘Watch List.’”
Currently, Louisiana ranks as the fifth-worst Judicial Hellhole in the United States. The latest ATRA report found that Louisiana accounted for 5.6% of legal service television advertising in the nation, even though the state represents only 1.5% of the U.S. population.
Excessive tort costs have taken a toll on the state’s economy, according to the report. Had Louisiana enacted comprehensive civil-litigation reforms, state residents and businesses would have saved more than $2 billion, the ATRA reported.
“This means that residents are in effect paying a ‘tort tax’ of $451 per person, the study states.
The economic payoff from making needed civil-litigation reforms would also support an additional 22,550 jobs in Louisiana, according to the analysis.
Other areas of criticism in the report involved the presence of car insurance fraud and high auto-injury claims.
“Fueled by a climate of lawsuit abuse, the state’s auto insurance premiums are the highest in the country,” the report said. “Auto insurance premiums saw a 52% increase in the state between 2011 and 2020, pushing some insurance companies out of the state.”
ATRA also criticized the tendency of some Louisiana government officials to engage in cronyism.
“Since Gov. John Bel Edwards’ election in 2015, he has made a habit of hiring former campaign donors to represent the state in litigation against energy companies, creating the appearance of a ‘pay-to-play’ system,” the report says.
The passage of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2020, however, was seen as a bright spot. The Louisiana law lowers the jury trial threshold from $50,000 to $10,000, repeals a rule banning juries from learning about whether a plaintiff was wearing a seatbelt in auto-related cases and helped to provide juries with more accurate information on plaintiffs’ medical care costs.