The Insurance Research Council recently released a report on auto insurance affordability in Louisiana. Unfortunately, the findings are not new.
As has been the case for years, Louisiana is still the least affordable state in the nation for personal auto insurance, with drivers paying 40% above the national average for annual premiums.
According to the IRC, one of the key drivers of higher auto insurance costs in Louisiana is the high rate of claims litigation and attorney involvement in auto injury claims.
I applaud Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple and state lawmakers for taking steps to address the auto insurance crisis by implementing some positive legal system abuse reforms, including direct action reform and litigation funding transparency laws, during the legislative session.
However, their work was largely overshadowed by Gov. Jeff Landry’s veto of critical collateral source reform, which was the most significant legal reform bill passed by the Legislature in 2024.
It is unclear why the governor decided to align himself with the trial bar on this issue, but what we do know is that Louisiana families and small businesses cannot afford to wait another year for our leaders to deal with the ongoing auto insurance crisis that’s shrinking our pocketbooks and hurting our state’s economy.
In order to adequately address Louisiana’s sky-high auto insurance rates, Commissioner Temple and lawmakers are going to have to outwork the governor and his plaintiff attorney allies to enact veto-proof reforms that will promote competition in private passenger and commercial auto markets and bring more transparency and balance to our civil justice system. It won’t be easy, but it must be done. It appears they are off to a good start.
Since Gov. Landry’s veto this summer, lawmakers have spent more than 27 hours in committee meetings hearing from more than two dozen witnesses who provided testimony about different cost drivers that impact insurance premiums. From small business owners to hospital operators, ambulance service providers, lawyers, consumers and many others, a variety of perspectives have been presented. One message that seems to be consistent: there are several different factors that contribute to the crisis of availability and affordability in Louisiana’s auto insurance market – but none more so than the longstanding issue of legal system abuse.
According to the IRC, Louisianans are twice as likely to file an injury claim once an accident has occurred compared to the rest of the country. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Louisiana also experiences more than double the countrywide rate of attorney advertising. Simply put, they sue. We pay.
From brightly colored billboards to catchy commercials and radio ads, we are constantly bombarded with trial lawyer advertising that appears to be designed to fuel lawsuits. Why? Because more lawsuits equal more money in their pockets? Who benefits the most from the broken system we have now? Who is fighting hardest to stop reforms and maintain the status quo while our premiums keep going up?
We cannot continue down this road. We have to enact common sense solutions to prevent abuse of the legal system and level the playing field in Louisiana. Villainizing insurance providers, cherry-picking data that doesn’t tell the whole story, and imposing new taxes will not help attract new companies into the state and it’s certainly not going to help bring down costs.
It is long past time for Gov. Landry to put consumers and local businesses above special interests who benefit from the current system at the expense of everyone else. After all, the goal of Louisiana’s legal system should be providing justice for injured parties, not lining the pockets of trial lawyers.
