A Senate committee approves two tort reform bills that supporters say will help in the effort to lower auto insurance rates. One of the bills would reduce the payout an uninsured driver would receive if injured in the crash. The other bill heading to the Senate floor would prohibit legal damages going to an injured driver that has been found to be 51% or more at fault in an accident. New Orleans Senator Gary Carter voted against the bill because he says there’s no guarantee this legislation will lower rates.
“Even if it’s just 30%, you owe me 30% of the harm that you’ve caused. This is taking that right away without any guarantee that the people in Louisiana are going receive reduced or lower insurance rights of any sort,” Carter said.
The legislation has the support of Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple. Temple says in Louisiana the number of bodily injury claims is twice the national average and that’s resulting in insurance companies paying more tin damages, which is contributing the state’s high auto insurance rates.
“This is a piece of the puzzle that’s designed to address an issue where Louisiana has a disproportionate number of bodily injury claims,” Temple said.
But Alexandria Senator Jay Luneau says the Louisiana Legislature has passed tort reform legislation in the past with the hopes it would lower rates, and it never came to be.
“Tort reform is not going to lower insurance premiums. The insurance industry says that repeatedly, but we kept going back to tort reform and saying this is going to fix it. It’s not gonna fix it,” Luneau said.
Both tort reform bills approved by Senate Judiciary A have already passed the House. House Insurance Chairman Gabe Firment says the legislation attempts to correct a big problem in Louisiana.
“The only way we will ever see any sort of downward pressure on premiums is to reduce the number of bodily injury claims and reduce excessive payouts,” Firment said.
Comments