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By Catherine Hunt
LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE--With the special session nearing an end, the Senate passed two possible compromise bills Monday aimed at lowering auto insurance rates and winning support from Gov. John Bel Edwards, who vetoed a major Republican-backed tort reform plan.
The Senate voted 30-8 to approve a bill by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzalez. Another bill, by Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, passed 35-3, with seven Democrats voting in support.
The House passed Nelson’s bill 82-9 last week, with 21 Democrats voting for it.
Stephen Waguespack, head of the Louisiana Association of Business & Industry, told The Advocate/The Times-Picayune that his group was fine with either Nelson’s or Schexnayder’s bill.
The vetoed bill was proposed by Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge. It would have limited damages awarded to plaintiffs in personal injury cases in an attempt to lower auto insurance premiums.
Louisiana has the second highest car insurance rates in the country, after Michigan.
Republicans have not been able to muster the votes to override Edwards’ veto, and have focused on passing replacement bills or resolutions while negotiating with Democrats, who want greater assurances that rates would go down and that accident victims would not be unfairly treated.
Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, and Sen. Robert Mills, R-Minden, have filed three identical resolutions that follow Talbot’s methods to lower insurance rates and could be implemented without Edwards’ consent.
The session must adjourn by 6 p.m. Tuesday, and House and Senate leaders must decide whether to send one of the bills to Edwards or proceed with the resolutions.
Like Talbot’s bill, Nelson’s would extend the time that parties have to file suits in hopes of encouraging parties to settle out of court. It would also limit the amount of recoverable medical expenses and insurance premium payments, and it would lower the monetary amount an injury has to be worth to be decided by a jury rather than a judge.
But unlike Talbot’s bill, it would reduce the default number of jurors to six from 12 to try to lessen the burden on courts and jurors. Judges expressed concerns that Talbot’s bill would overwhelm courts with jury trials and that rural areas could have trouble finding enough jurors for personal injury cases.
In another compromise, Nelson’s bill includes a sunset provision that would repeal the law if rates did not decrease by at least 15% in three years.
Democrats opposed Talbot’s bill because it did not mandate rate reductions, and Republicans refused to include language that would repeal the legislation if the changes did not result in lower premiums.
Unlike any other so-called tort reform bill this session, Nelson’s included comparative fault language that would prevent injured plaintiffs from recovering damages if their percentage of fault is greater than the combined percentage of fault of all other persons found to have contributed to the injury, death, or loss.
Twenty-three states have comparative fault, Nelson said, and the 14 states with the lowest car insurance rates have the same provision included in his bill.
Nelson’s bill would prohibit insurance companies from setting rates based on a driver’s gender if they are over the age of 25.
Schexnayder’s bill also would allow seatbelt evidence to be used in court, lower the monetary amount an injury has to be worth to be decided by a jury rather than a judge and would prohibit mentioning the insurance company during a trial besides during the opening and closing.
Democrats sponsored bills that would have tried to lower insurance rates by prohibiting insurance companies from determining rates based on age, gender, marital status and credit score, but faced opposition from Republicans. Edwards has said he supports this measure and that he believes “discriminatory practices” need to end in order to lower rates.
Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, authored several bills that would have prohibited these “discriminatory practices,” but his bills were killed in committee. Despite Nelson’s compromise, Luneau was one of the three votes in opposition of Nelson’s bill.
“This bill puts something bad for everybody, and it makes for a bad bill all around,” he said of the compromise.
Other Democrats spoke in support of Nelson’s bill, saying the debate over insurance rates has lasted for too long with no real action.
“I’m a trial lawyer, but at the end of the day I want to end this debate about what we need to do to lower insurance rates,” said Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge.
Sen. Karen Peterson, D-New Orleans, agreed and said, “Let’s pass this bill, the governor signs it, and for the next four months let’s talk about something that’s actually going to move the needle.”

BATON ROUGE – While the state unemployment average is 13 percent, the good news is that Vermilion Parish’s unemployment rate is well below that and is one of the lowest in Acadiana.
As of this week, Vermilion Parish’s unemployment rate is 10.6 which is the second lowest out of an eight-parish area in Acadiana.
The lowest is Cameron Parish at 7.9 percent, followed by Vermilion and then Acadia Parish (10.7).
The highest unemployment average in Acadiana is St. Mary Parish at 13.9 percent. Iberia Parish is second at 13.3 percent.
Lafayette Parish’s rate is 11.5 percent.

Here are the state’s employment rates throughout the region.

• Alexandria: 9.2 percent, up from 4.6 percent in May 2019, but down from 9.9 percent from April.
• Baton Rouge: 11.8 percent, up from 3.9 percent in May 2019, but down from 13.0 percent from April.
• Hammond: 16.1 percent, up from 4.9 percent in May 2019, but down from 17.1 percent from April.
• Houma: 10.9 percent, up from 4.2 percent in May 2019, but down from 12.4 percent from April.
• Lafayette: 11.6 percent, up from 4.3 percent from May 2019, but down from 13.0 percent from April.
• Lake Charles: 13.1 percent, up from 3.6 percent in May 2019, but down from 14.2 percent from April.
• Monroe: 10.8 percent, up from 4.8 percent in May 2019, but down from 11.7 percent from April.
• New Orleans: 16.4 percent, up from 4.0 percent in May 2019, but down from 19.0 percent from April.
• Shreveport: 12.5 percent, up from 4.6 percent in May 2019, but down from 13.1 percent from April.

August 26, 1949 ~ June 28, 2020

LEROY — A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church honoring the life of Barbara Touchet Bourque, 70, who died Sunday, June 28, 2020 at Maison De Lafayette. She will be laid to rest at Abshire Cemetery with Rev. Johnathan Janise officiating the services.
She was a loving and caring wife, mother and grandmother.
She was employed with Abbeville General Hospital as an office clerk for over 30 plus years.
Barbara is survived by her husband of 52 years, Purvis Bourque; four children, Kevin Bourque of Leroy, Frank Bourque and his wife Candie of Kaplan, Tina Duhon and her husband Joel of Kaplan, and Melissa Bourque of Maurice; fourteen grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Stanville and Thelma Touchet Dartez; and brother, Billy Dartez.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at Vincent Funeral Home - Abbeville, 209 S. St. Charles St., on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 from 10:00 AM until 9:00 PM with a rosary being prayed at 7:00 PM; Wednesday, July 1, 2020 from 8:00 AM until 10:30 AM when the procession will depart for the church.
The Bourque family would like to express their gratitude to her nurses and caregivers at Maison de Lafayette for their compassion and kindness.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Abbeville, (337) 893-4661.

State health officials are reporting one new death in Vermilion Parish that is related to COVID-19.
The number of deaths from coronavirus in Vermilion Parish is now six.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), there are also 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the parish, bringing the total to 238 since the state began a tally in March. There were nine new cases reported on Sunday, June 28, after the state added 35 cases on Friday. That state did not report cases on Saturday, due to a planned power outage.
As of Monday afternoon, LDH reported the total number cases in Louisiana at 57,081 with 3,091 having died from the disease. The number of cases is up 845 from Sunday, with five newly reported deaths.
An updated report on June 29 shows that 42,225 patients have “presumed recovered.” That report is updated weekly.
There are 737 people who are hospitalized, up 22 from Sunday. Seventy-nine of those require ventilators. That is up three from the previous day.
Cases and deaths as of Monday for parishes around Acadiana include:
Acadia - 850 cases (up 38), 37 deaths (up 1)
Evangeline - 177 cases (up 4), 54 deaths (did not change)
Iberia - 673 cases (37), 44 deaths (did not change)
Jefferson Davis - 339 cases (up 11), 8 deaths (did not change)
Lafayette - 2,058 (up 86), 41 deaths (did not change)
St. Landry - 619 cases (up 14), 57 deaths (did not change)
St. Martin - 685 cases (up 24), 26 deaths (did not change)
St. Mary - 457 cases (up 14), 38 deaths (did not change)
Vermilion - 238 cases (up 10), 6 deaths (did not change)