Despite determined reform efforts by certain lawmakers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s civil litigation environment, especially in Orleans and St. Landry parishes, remains a concern thanks to laws that still permit excessive liability, plaintiff-friendly judges, and close relationships between the plaintiffs’ bar and some state government officials.
St. Landry Parish, in particular, has been one of the major reasons for Louisiana’s reoccurring spot on the Watch List, starting with the 2010 edition, which called out former state Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. and his successor Buddy Caldwell for hiring a group of “profit-driven” personal injury attorneys to represent the state in a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company over an issue that had already been resolved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Basically, the pharmaceutical company had distributed a letter to doctors touting the benefits of a new anti-psychotic drug. The FDA later forced a retraction after discovering the benefits and drawbacks of the drug had both been overblown by the company. Although no individuals were harmed, the state filed suit against the company in the 27th Judicial District in St. Landry Parish. The outcome, rendered by district Judge Donald Hebert, resulted in one of the highest dollar judgements in the history of the parish, and possibly the state. According to the 2010 report:
Louisiana sued on the basis of the regulatory finding by the FDA hoping to collect a windfall. The result? An incredible $258 million judgment, believed to be the largest ever assessed in the parish and one of the largest in the history of the state. Attorney General Caldwell proclaimed that the verdict sends the message that ‘those who deceive the state must pay.’ But the real message conveyed is: Beware of Louisiana’s civil justice system — it can lead to verdicts of hundreds of millions of dollars, even without evidence of actual harm.
In 2011, Louisiana again made the Watch List thanks to St. Landry's district courts, this time because of a $15 million verdict awarded to the family of an Opelousas man who blew himself up while attempting to steal natural gas. The man's gas had previously been cut off for nonpayment. The jury ultimately found Centerpoint Energy, the Opelousas man’s energy provider, to be responsible for 50 percent of the $15 million awarded to his family, despite the fact Centerpoint played no role whatsoever in causing the explosion.
Ending corruption in Louisiana's civil court system means getting to the root of the problem, which according to the 2012 list, all boils down to:
[The] INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS OVER STATE OFFICIALS. In addition to their influence with judges, Louisiana’s personal injury bar also has clout with other state officials. As the $258 million Risperdal verdict shows, state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell hires politically-supportive personal injury lawyers to enforce state law in exchange for lucrative fees based on the fines they impose. He has done so despite a 1997 Louisiana Supreme Court decision that found such arrangements are illegal without legislative approval.
Check out all 11 editions of the Judicial Hellholes Watch List here.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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