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A pair of Republicans are proposing legislation that they affectionately call “loser pays.”
“It reduces frivolous lawsuits by requiring a plaintiff to cover attorneys fees on baseless claims,” says New Iberia Sen. Blake Miguez, who has filed the bill along with Pineville Rep. Mike Johnson as a way to help rein in insurance rates.
“Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple has mentioned the reason for high insurance rates on automobiles in this state is the number of frivolous lawsuits and the high amount of payouts compared to other states,” notes Miguez.
Miguez says his bill is not intended to dissuade people from filing lawsuits for legitimate claims, since the bar would be set high for this provision to kick in.
“It requires summary proceeding for all of the plaintiffs’ claims to be completely dismissed,” says Miguez. “If there was still a validity in one of the claims, then this would not take effect.”
If the bill becomes law, Miguez says perhaps that will get rogue attorneys to think twice about the cases they take up.
“This will disincentivize an attorney to take a case up that may be frivolous in nature,” Miguez says.
The legislative session begins Monday.
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