Quantcast

Down On The Bayou

December 22, 2008

The Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy is out with another update in its valuable Trial Lawyers Inc. series, this time examining the trial lawyer’s paradise of Louisiana.

Louisiana has long been a bottom dweller on both the American Tort Reform Association’s  Judicial Hellholes list and the Institute for Legal Reform’s annual ranking of the nation’s worst legal environments.  The latest Trial Lawyers Inc. report traces Louisiana’s lawsuit-friendly culture to several root factors:

  • In recent years, Louisiana “has become a magnet for mass tort lawyers squeezed by comprehensive tort reform in neighboring states such as Texas and Mississippi.”  Big asbestos firms such as Baron & Budd of Texas have joined home-grown tort kingpins like Russ Herman to make Louisiana a haven for mass torts against asbestos, tobacco and pharmaceutical companies. 
  • Over the past several years, Louisiana’s Supreme Court has also “move[d] away from long-standing limitations on damages recoverable in litigation,” while lower courts have “permitted novel new theories of injury” that encourage enterprising trial lawyers to file more litigation and significantly increase the legal risks to corporate defendants. 
  • Louisiana pension funds have also emerged as the most active participants in securities class action litigation.  In 2004, one Ohio judge chastised the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana for being a “professional plaintiff”

Not surprisingly, Hurricane Katrina-related litigation has been one of the prime growth areas for Trial Lawyers Inc. in Louisiana.  The first federal Katrina case to go to trial was withdrawn before it reached a jury after evidence emerged that “the damages the plaintiffs were seeking had already been paid by the insurer.”  But “thousands of lawsuits … remain unsettled, and more lawsuits have been filed in the wake of subsequent hurricanes such as Gustav.” 

The report credits Louisiana’s Supreme Court for refusing to overturn the state’s long-standing cap on damages in medical liability cases.  The state legislature has also passed laws that will help remove “junk science” from Louisiana trials. 

“Still trial lawyers in Louisiana have been busy in their own behalf.  Their allies in the legislature introduced a bill this year that would have exempted some damages from the state’s medical-malpractice cap, thus driving up insurance premiums for doctors.  Another bill threatened to double the length of time that a plaintiff would have to file a lawsuit, increasing litigation risks to all businesses.”

One bright spot the report failed to mention is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is considered a rising political star.  As Governor Jindal works to rebuild Louisiana’s economy, he’ll need to keep his eye on trial lawyer-inspired legislation that would kill corporate investment and job creation, while pushing for new reforms that protect companies from abusive litigation. 

Posted by Dan Pero in the categories: Louisiana, Tort Reform, Trial Lawyers

Comments