Dear Members,

Currently pending before the legislature is a tort reform bill that has been pushed by LABI (Bill 418). While it does not have all of the changes that we had hoped would be made to the existing tort laws, it is favorable, and we believe that it deserves the support of the LMTA. The bill eliminates most of the exposure to phantom medical damages, and limits recovery to the amount paid by a health insurance company, Medicare or Medicaid. If someone chooses not to use their available health insurance, their recovery is still limited to the amount that would have been paid had they submitted the bill to their health insurance.

In addition, the bill lowers the threshold for a trial by jury (in personal injury cases). It also eliminates the seatbelt gag rule. In other words, defendants will now be able to talk about the fact that a plaintiff was not wearing his or her seatbelt (and argue that that is one of the causes of a plaintiff’s injuries/damages).

There are multiple other issues addressed in the tort reform bill; however, the above three issues are issues that have long been on the LMTA’s radar. We encourage you to call your legislator and ask them to vote for this bill. Please do so today if possible; the amended bill is supposed to come up for a vote today, May, 29. Please visit LMTA's Contacting Your Representative page for information on Louisiana's 2020 District Representatives.

Additionally, the LMTA 2020 Annual Convention has been officially cancelled. This was a hard decision to make and we thank everyone for their interest.


Thank you,