re: Switch the outcome, what could be done to stop trial lawyers?

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Seriously how does the rest of the country manage to survive without a $50K jury threshold? Such a joke.

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Juries filter the bs.

In Louisiana, EVERYONE involved in an accident, no matter how slight, will be sent by their attorney to a chiropractor for a few months of treatment. That chiropractor will opine that his patient suffered an impressive list of diagnoses as a result of the accident and the length of his treatment and bills will end up raising the claim value to at least the $15,000 minimum policy limits. Remember, the plaintiff doesn’t need to actually be hurt, he just has to say that he’s experiencing symptoms and who can prove that he’s not?

That attorney will then demand that the insurance company pay its policy limits to release the claim against its insured/at-fault driver. The threat is that if the insurance company doesn’t pay this plaintiff, they will then go to trial before a plaintiff-friendly judge that can award up to $50,000 and the at-fault driver will be at risk of an excess judgment for any award over his policy limits. Insurance companies (you know, being so evil as they’re made out to be) are then stuck in the position of risking exposure to their insured or paying ridiculous amounts to a non-injured plaintiff without having any opportunity for a jury to look at the tiny scratch on the plaintiff’s bumper and tell the plaintiff to kick rocks for wasting their time.

The fact that insurance companies are paying so much money on settlements and judgments that premiums need to be where they are should alert everyone that the problem is not “insurance companies denying valid claims” as one commercial suggests. Insurance companies that operate in every state are in the unique position of seeing how the value of similar claims differ from state to state.