The legislative session may still be months away, but the business community is already gunning for one of its familiar and favorite targets: The trial bar, writes Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel in her latest column.
The trial bar, she adds, is targeted with good reason. In 2017, not for the first time, the American Tort Reform Association tagged Louisiana with the dubious distinction of being a “judicial hellhole”—the 8th worst in the nation—due largely to its abundance of frivolous lawsuits, excessive judgments and the freewheeling practice of venue shopping by attorneys for friendly judges.
Earlier this fall, two local groups—the grassroots Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch and business-based Louisiana Coalition for Common Sense—released yet another damaging report, this one asserting that Louisiana’s overly litigious climate costs the state’s economy $1.1 billion and more than 15,500 jobs a year, Riegel writes.
“While skeptics may wonder if those numbers are exactly spot on, there’s no denying that Louisiana’s excessive civil tort costs harm the state’s economic competitiveness,” Riegel writes.
Read Riegel’s full column about tort reform. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com
