Auto insurance rate cuts by three providers are gladly welcomed by customers, but it does little to help the fact that Louisiana still pays among the highest rates in the nation. For the last three years Louisiana ranked second behind Michigan for the most expensive auto insurance rates.
Recently Louisiana Farm Bureau Casualty, Progressive and State Farm lowered rates. Farm Bureau lowered rates by 4.4-percent, State Farm by 3.2-percent and Progressive 2.2-percent. The average in Louisiana is $2,298.
Numerous task forces and consumer agencies all point to Louisiana's accident lawyers and generous amounts of liability awards as reasons rates are so high. According to Louisiana Watchdog, liability lawsuits costs are more than 20-percent higher than the national average at $7-billion. Automobile suits alone account for $3.4-billion.
These sky-high amounts caused Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon to appoint a taskforce to investigate ways to lower rates. They recommended lowering jury thresholds from the current $50-thousand dollars as a way to lower rates. This idea got as far as a bill in a Senate committee before it failed to garner enough votes to go to floor of the legislature.