Lana Venable is executive director of Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch.
BATON ROUGE — Though tort-reform supporters welcomed the passage of a handful of their priority bills during the Louisiana Legislature’s 2025 session, they also said roadblocks at the Senate Judiciary A Committee and a governor’s veto muddled the session’s outcome
Groups such as Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch (LLAW) and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) highlighted the passage of several legal reform measures, including House Bill 431 by Rep. Emily Chenevert (R-Baton Rouge), which limits damages awards in auto accident cases if the claimant is 51% or more at fault, and House Bill 434 by Rep. Jason DeWitt (R-Alexandria), which places a $100,000 cap on uninsured motorists who seek to recover damages.
Other successful measures cited by tort-reform advocates are HB 450 by Rep. Michael Melerine (R-Shreveport), which repeals a previous legal presumption that an accident was the cause of a claimant’s injury, and SB 231 by Sen. Mike Reese (R-Leesville), which alters how courts determine the amount plaintiffs can recover for past medical bills.
“This session was a mixed bag for legal reform,” Lana Venable, LLAW’s executive director, told the Louisiana Record in an email. “With more than a dozen reform bills passing in the House, only four key pieces of legislation made it all the way to the finish line. One has been watered down, and two priority bills were stopped in their tracks in the Senate Judiciary A Committee.”
Venable also said the unexpected veto of SB 111 by Sen. Alan Seabaugh (R-Many) was an extreme disappointment. That measure would have barred bodily injury lawsuits against insurers when certain conditions occur, such as good-faith disputes over liability and medical causation for alleged injuries, or if the insurer has not had the chance to conduct adequate discovery of the facts.
“(SB 111) would have brought much-needed clarity to our vague “bad faith” insurance laws, closing a loophole often used by plaintiff lawyers,” Venable said.
There were several missed opportunities to rein in “jackpot justice” during the legislation, she said, including the failure to pass HB 435 by Rep. Peter Egan (R-Covington), which would have limited general damages paid by a defendant to any one claimant or plaintiff to $5 million.
Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple expressed appreciation for the passage of legal reform measures as well as several insurance-related bills he supported. Eight out of 20 bills Temple supported have been either sent to Gov. Jeff Landry or have already been signed by him.
“While it is true that the Legislature passed many good bills this year, I am disappointed by the Senate’s rejection of the other 12 bills I supported this session – 10 of which failed to pass the Senate Judiciary A Committee,” he said in a prepared statement. “These bills would have meaningfully addressed needed legal reforms including medical billing transparency, a cap on general damages, the use of reversionary trusts, limiting attorney contingency fees, third-party litigation financing and more.”
The insurance commissioner also criticized the enactment of HB 148 by Rep. Jeff Wiley (R-Maurepas), which gives Temple unilateral powers to reject insurers’ rate requests for “purely political, personal and other subjective reasons.” Under the measure, the insurance commissioner can force insurers to issue refunds if premiums charged in past years or decades are found to be excessive, he said.
“Instead of helping address our insurance crisis, this new law makes Louisiana’s insurance industry more heavily regulated than California’s,” Temple said. “This is not the right path for Louisiana. We compete against other states for insurance company capacity and absolutely must maintain our unbiased, predictable regulatory environment. …”
Will Green, president and CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, said LABI secured key victories during the legislative session to encourage business investment and strengthen the state’s economy. But the association also reported that “short-sighted and harmful legislation” made its way through the Legislature and sent some mixed signals to industry.
“Every time meaningful reform is shelved or damaging policies advance, we lose ground in the competition for investment, jobs and innovation,” Green said in a statement.
