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It has been a great week with insurance reform at the state capitol. Two more House bills have passed from the House this week and are now awaiting the Senate.
HB423 - Rep. Michael Melerine (Collateral Source) This bill discloses to the jury in civil cases what a plaintiff ACTUALLY pays in medical costs and what the medical provider bills the insurer.
STATUS: Passed the House 88-10 on March 25 with bipartisan support. Click HERE to see the vote.
HB337 - Rep Jack McFarland (Direct Action) This bill would repeal the current direct action statute against insurers except in specific limited cases. This legislation would put us in line with 47 other states. (ex: If you were in an accident only you would be named in the suit. As the law is now, if you are in a suit it will say "logging company and its insurer". We believe when the insurer is named in such case that bills and costs are inflated)
Status: Passed the House 86-15 on March 27 with multiple co-authors. Click HERE to see the clips of Rep. McFarland on HB337. Click HERE to see the vote.
HB24 - Rep. Michael Melerine (Housely Presumption) This bill would require a plaintiff to maintain full burden of proof on causation rather than allowing the plaintiff to rely on the prior judicially-created presumption of causation. It legislatively repeals the presumption and provides additional fairness and predictability in Louisiana's legal system. (ex: If you were in an accident you would have to prove the accident caused the injury and that you didn't have prior injury)
Status: Passed the House 75-25 with bipartisan support. Click HERE to view the vote
HB336 - Rep. Emily Chenevert (Third Party Litigation Financing Bill) This bill requires parties to automatically disclose any litigation financing contract or agreement under which anyone other than a legal representative may receive compensation contingent on the proceeds of the civil action. (ex: Some Louisiana companies invest in litigation in hopes of getting high returns on their investments; they would have to disclose this financial partner)
Status: Passed the House 84-17 with bipartisan support. Amended earlier in House Civil Law to exclude non-profit organization from disclosure requirements. Click HERE to view the vote.
NOT SUPPORTING:
HB315 - Rep. Mike Johnson (Two year prescription) This bill would change the state prescriptive period from one year to two years. (ex. You can be sued for an accident up to two years later)
Status: Passed the house 83-18. Rep. Wright tried to put an amendment on the bill to allow for NOTICES within the two years, but failed. Thank you Rep. Wright for trying to help the commercial industries on this bill. Click HERE to view the vote of the amendment. Click HERE to view the vote on the bill.
SB355 - Sen. Jeremy Stine (Foreign Third Party Litigation Funders) This bill would allow the Attorney General to be made aware if Foreign Adversaries funded litigation in our state.
** This is NOT a TPLF bill, this is a National Security Bill. Unfortunately, this bill is being compared to HB336 by Rep. Chenevert, which is a strong bill that has teeth to get to the issues in our state. If needed we will work with Rep Chenevert to amend Foreign TPLF onto her bill. This bill is NOT a part of the LDI's package and we are NOT in support of this bill being used as an Insurance Reform Bill.
Status: Passed out of Jud A and will move to Senate Floor Tuesday, April 2. Please tell your senators to NOT support SB355
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