Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple’s legislative agenda hit its first major roadblock last week in the Senate Judiciary A Committee, a place where tort reformers’ dreams often go to die.
Gov. Jeff Landry has not spoken out against the automobile tort reform portion of Temple’s package publicly.
But industry insiders detect the governor’s influence in last week’s decision by the committee to table or water down bills that supporters argue could move the needle on sky-high auto insurance rates.
“On the property side, most of our legislation has gone through the full process with broad support,” Temple told LaPolitics. “The auto package is still being held up in Senate Judiciary A, but they still have time to pass it this session.”
Reading the tea leaves of Jud A, the auto tort reform bills are likely done for the session, according to Will Green, president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.
That would be a surprise twist, given the support of Temple’s package in the House for both the property insurance portion and the automobile pieces.
“Up until [last Tuesday] in committee, this has been a pretty overwhelmingly supported, and to a degree bipartisan, package of legislation,” Green said. “We can’t continue to pass piecemeal legislation that’s watered down, and continue to treat bullet holes with Band-Aids.”
Boosters of the tort-and-deregulate agenda have been wary about where Landry stands on these tort reform bills, noting Louisiana’s new CEO is a pro-business Republican who was elected with trial lawyer support. Landry allies in Capitoland say they’ve received mixed signals on the issue at best, and a Fourth Floor spokesperson has not yet responded to emails asking about the governor’s positions.
“I am surprised and disappointed,” said Senate Labor Chair Alan Seabaugh when asked about the tort reform bills that were tabled last week. “Trial lawyers got involved in seven Senate races last year, and they went zero for seven.”
Seabaugh, who serves on Jud A and intended to vote for the entire Temple package, has been outspoken about the potential for the new Republican governor and legislative supermajority to enact changes that had been stymied by the previous administration. On the tort reform front, some lawmakers suspect Landry would veto these bills if they reached his desk — but, of course, no one knows for sure.
“I’ve gotten mixed signals from the governor on whether he was going to veto them or not,” Seabaugh said.
One of the industry’s most closely watched pro-tort reform bills, HB 423 by Rep. Michael Melerine, advanced out of Jud A last week, but not before being slightly gutted and re-stuffed.
Melerine said he was surprised by the far-reaching amendments to his collateral source legislation, which involves insured plaintiffs, the “sticker price” of medical procedures and, of course, who gets the end-game payouts.
Renee Amar of the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, said the bill was a “key piece of legislation for truckers” and that it was “greatly watered down at the request of trial lawyers and healthcare providers.”
Also escaping Jud A was HB 315 by Speaker Pro Tem Mike Johnson, a bill to extend the time a plaintiff has to file suit from one year to two. Landry has publicly vouched for that bill, which the business lobby opposes.
“The governor has made it very clear to me that he didn’t want any amendments,” Johnson told the committee.
Two so-called tort reform measures, HB 24 and HB 336, were not so lucky. In both cases, Jud A Chair Greg Miller suggested the authors “voluntarily” defer their bills and live to fight another day. After the meeting Miller said he had not spoken to Landry about the bills, but he said he understood the governor had some concerns.
As far as silver linings for industry, there’s still a chance to eliminate the right to sue an insurer directly, which currently makes Louisiana an outlier compared to most states. Also scheduled for a Senate floor hearing next week is SB 130 to eliminate the state’s $10,000 threshold to guarantee the right to a jury trial, though the proposal still has a long road to final passage.
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