Louisiana’s civil justice system is costing the state’s economy billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs―particularly in major metropolitan areas, reports The Center Square.
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, a nonpartisan group focused on tort reform, has released a series of city-specific economic impact reports for 2023 that provide a snapshot of the cost of frivolous lawsuits in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The reports follow an annual Judicial Hellholes report from the American Tort Reform Foundation in December that ranked Louisiana as the seventh worst state in the nation for “places where judges in civil cases systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner.”
The Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse reports show the gross product lost to excessive tort litigation in Louisiana is about $5.17 billion each year, with $3.54 billion in direct costs.
The losses equate to $268.6 million in lost state revenues, and $224.2 million in local revenues statewide. The excessive tort costs equate to a “tort tax” of $1,263 per Louisianan, and translate to 48,696 jobs lost, according to the reports.
“A flawed civil justice system which generates exorbitant levels of damages or numbers of awards and which is unpredictable in its outcomes may result in negative impacts through the misallocation of society’s scarce economic and human resources,” the reports read. “Tort reform can lead to substantial economic benefits, and states which have implemented reforms have seen improved judicial efficiency and measurable advancement in economic performance.”
Much of the tort costs in Louisiana stem from the New Orleans-Metairie metropolitan area, which is defined as Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes.
