State Rep. Emily Chenevert
Advocates of legal reform are spotlighting civil litigation concerns that have yet to be fully addressed in Louisiana as part of Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week, a nationwide outreach that occurs during the first full week of October.
Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch (LLAW) and the Louisiana Legal Reform Coalition are among the groups observing the annual event, which is a grassroots effort to inform people about the economic costs of excessive litigation and a culture that fosters “jackpot justice” in the form of high-stakes damages awards.
“While motivated legislators continue attempting to pass meaningful reforms, we are disappointed that more has not been accomplished,” LLAW said in a news release. “Unfortunately, attempts at passing much-needed reform legislation were soundly thwarted during the legislative session.”
Among the legal reforms that are still needed in the state in the wake of this year’s legislative session are more transparency in the way medical damages are calculated in personal-injury cases, as well as more clarity about the use of third-party litigation financing (TPLF) to fund civil lawsuits and a greater effort to tamp down the litigious culture that exists in Louisiana, according to LLAW.
Rep. Emily Chenevert (R-Baton Rouge), an advocate for legal reforms, told the Louisiana Record that some TPLF reforms were enacted two years ago, including a requirement that litigation funders from “foreign countries of concern” disclose their TPLF activities to the state attorney general and a provision barring litigation funders from influencing legal strategies and decisions involving the parties to a lawsuit.
But Chenevert said she would like to see additional TPLF transparency measures enacted, such as a consumer-oriented effort to require that people seeking to hire attorneys be informed about whether the attorneys are using TPLF contracts. In addition, the funders should not be able to obtain a greater share of the damages award than the client or plaintiff, she said.
But getting legal reforms passed during the next legislative session in 2027 may be a challenge, according to Chenevert.
“The next session is a fiscal session, which means we are limited in the number of bills we can file,” she said. But the state representative indicated that further discussions with colleagues and advocacy groups, as well as taking a look at successful legal reforms passed in other states, can bring future successes.
“I think the big picture is that (legal reform) is on the forefront of our minds,” Chenevert said, adding that her focus will continue to be filing legislation that benefits the state’s business climate and makes Louisiana competitive.
LLAW reports that Louisiana continues to have one of the worst civil justice climates among the 50 states. Every resident of the state pays a clandestine “lawsuit tax” of more than $1,100 as a result of excessive legal costs paid by businesses that are often the targets of abusive litigation, according to LLAW.
The resulting financial burdens are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services, tort reform advocates say. They also say that such abuses cost the state tens of thousands of jobs annually.
One piece of evidence supporting concerns about high damages awards in the state was the recent $744 million verdict against Chevron that was handed down by a Plaquemines Parish jury in one of the scores of coastal erosion lawsuits filed against the energy industry, according to LLAW.
