re: JBE vetos tort reform

He did Talbot and Skip Phillips a favor. I wish he would have signed the bill letting me get 1.5 times the health insurance premiums paid.

Talbot sat down for the first time without Waguespack and Chauvin’s hands up his back moving his mouth and he was exposed as a terrible negotiator

Yes, punitive damages are awesome. My favorite case on the matter is Jacque v. Steenberg Homes, 563 N.W.2d 154 (Wisc. 1997).

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Punitive damages, by removing the profit from illegal activity, can help to deter such conduct. In order to effectively do this, punitive damages must be in excess of the profit created by the misconduct so that the defendant recognizes a loss. It can hardly be said that the $30 forfeiture paid by Steenberg significantly affected its profit for delivery of the mobile home. One hundred thousand dollars will.

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I like how you would give up your own legal rights, including those of your children and grandchildren, just to stop PI lawyers.

Here come the tards with a legal opinion but with zero understanding of litigation.

You are giving up:

1. Your amount compensation for injury of death due to negligence of another
2. Your ability to litigate a case timely

Youre giving it up for the benefit of foreign billion dollar insurance companies who don’t give a squirt of piss about you or your loved ones. Your 5 year old daughter could be slowly burned to death in a fire by a drunk driver and they don’t give a frick. Trust me, I fought them daily for 20 years. You are nothing to their stockholders. You are just in their way of larger profits.

And what do you get in return for the bill? Nothing! They refuse to promise you any reduction in premiums. Refused to put it in the bill. Why? Because it will never get reduced.

Examples of legislative restrictions on injury compensation that fricked the average Joe for the benefit of big businesses:

Lose a leg on the job? It’s capped at 66.67% of approximately 150 weeks of your salary. Does that sound fair? The legislature said it is. You’ll never walk again but hey, frick you and your family.

Your 10 year old child is killed by a surgeon who was rushing to go on his golf trip and let them bleed out during surgery because he failed to see he punctured her intestine? $500,000 is all her life is worth according to the legislature. Why? Because millionaire physicians said their premiums were too high and everyone bought it. Who benefited? Billion dollar malpractice carriers who lessened their payouts. Physicians premiums are still high.

They are your rights to just compensation. You should protect them. God forbid you might need them one day.

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I’m an attorney, idiot. Save your pontificating for someone else.

Collateral source gets difficult liability or causation cases settled. I actually didn’t mind giving it up for 1.5 multiplier on premiums paid. That’s fair and equitable.

Direct action is more procedural in me getting to serve a stable defendant insurance company. Transient defendants and service of process will become more difficult when that’s not really what it’s about. I’m not sure I buy the premise that juries award more knowing an insurance company is a defendant. There are ways to make that known even if State Farm isn’t listed in the header.

But if the flip is that limits have to be disclosed pre-suit then I’ll entertain the idea as less claims will need to be litigated anyway

No, I haven’t, but if you did that to a five year old child, the most his/her parents could collect for the lifetime of suffering and change in quality of life for both the child and the parents is $500,000.

That number was legislated in 1974 and has not been adjusted for inflation. A basic internet calculator tells me $500,000 in 1974 is $2.6 million in today’s dollars.

Med mal in Louisiana is not one you tort reform guys want to touch. It already ironclad. Look up LAMMICO dividend returns to ratepayers

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There are ways to make that known even if State Farm isn’t listed in the header.

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Fair point.

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Collateral source gets difficult liability or causation cases settled. I actually didn’t mind giving it up for 1.5 multiplier on premiums paid. That’s fair and equitable.

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I could live with that.

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No, I haven’t,

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You admit that you have no idea how many checks and balances are there in place right now that make the hypothetical situation as close to impossible as humanly possible (not saying that it cannot happen but there is a better chance of you getting a bj from nun and winning the powerball and then getting stuck by lightning in a 15 minute time frame than a little kid dying from bowel perforation because the surgeon was in a hurry). It doesn't matter if the reimbursement hasn't been adjusted since 1974 because the pain and suffering will not occur because the hypothetical situation will not occur. If you are having to rely on a hypothetical that is basically impossible to happen in real life then you have no argument counselor.

If you disagree meet me at sonic in the morning when it opens.

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It doesn't matter if the reimbursement hasn't been adjusted since 1974 because the pain and suffering will not occur because the hypothetical situation will not occur.


Eek. It’s tough to offer a retort when the point clearly flew above your head.

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I'm still waiting on a lawyer to explain to me why I or any citizen should be fighting to preserve our rights to compensation for pain and suffering for a hypothetical situation that just does not happen in real life (i.e. child dying from a bowel perforation because the surgeon was late for golf). All the other stuff you mentioned is not worth arguing over when the basis for the original argument is a bullshite hypothetical.

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What level is warranted? Please explain.

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LTLA

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They changed it to Louisiana Association For Justice a while back because they knew everyone loathed trial lawyers.