In an effort to reduce insurance rates, the House Civil Law Committee unanimously approved a bill that would extend the time from one to two years to file a civil lawsuit. Governor Jeff Landry this says will give an insurer and the claimant additional time to reach a settlement without having to go to court…
“You lengthen the time that insurance company gets to look through the particular claim to determine the merit of the case. That case may settle without the cost of the litigation. That means that the cost would go down.”
Landry says he’s heard from the insurance industry that fewer lawsuits can result in lower premiums. He says most of other states have a two year prescriptive period and they see less lawsuits
“Why is it that Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, those states don’t have as many lawsuits. So again, this is math.”
Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple looks at this legislation as just part of the solution to solving the insurance crisis that’s seeing rates going up on both auto and homeowners policies. He says other insurance reform efforts are also needed
“And so I just want to make sure that I’m very clear that while I’m in support of this bill, it is not just this bill – singular by itself silver bullet type of solution.”
Lawmakers will be discussing a package of tort and insurance reform bills as the season goes on.
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