From 2020 through 2022, the highest number of insurance cases in the U.S. were filed in the Western District of Louisiana, according to a new report from LexisNexis company Lex Machina.
This annual Insurance Litigation Report examines trends from federal district and appellate courts.
“This report reveals an interesting trend in which insurance cases have increased over the last three years,” said Ronald Porter, Lex Machina insurance legal data expert and editor of the report. “In addition, our filters showed that this increase was driven by several key subsets of insurance cases such as business liability policy cases, hurricane-related cases, and homeowners policy cases.”
According to the 64 Parishes organization, Louisiana entered an intense era of hurricane activity in 2020. Hurricane Laura – the strongest and most destructive Category 4 storm to hit Louisiana since the 1856 Last Island Hurricane – hit the state, followed by Hurricane Delta.
“In 2021 another deadly storm impacted Louisiana, quickly becoming the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to land in Louisiana, ranking behind Hurricane Katrina,” said 64 Parishes. “With winds of 150 mph at landfall, Ida tied Hurricane Laura and the 1856 Last Island Hurricane as the strongest to impact the state.”
Ida claimed 30 lives. It was also a costly storm, with damages estimated at upwards of $75 billion, and lead to extended use of generators that resulted in 141 hospitalizations and four deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
In addition to having the highest number of insurance cases from 2020 to 2022, Louisiana also had the most active Judge, James David Cain, at nearly 6,900 cases. Louisiana-based law firms Porteous, Hainkel & Johnson and Plauché, Smith & Nieset were two of the three most active firms representing defendants.
Countrywide, most federal district court cases (77%) resulted in settlements. Claimants won in just 2%, while claim defendants won in 8%. In Appellate court, appellees won half the time and claimants won just 15% of the time.
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