In 2020 stock markets were roiled by the COVID pandemic and lockdowns. On a single day, March 16, the S&P 500 Stock Market Index fell 12%! The S&P 500 Index declined 34% peak-to- trough before eventually recovering and pushing to all-time highs.
The American Tort Reform Foundation (ATRF) has published an annual “Judicial Hellholes” report since 2002. The most recent report has Louisiana landing at No. 7 among the worst legal climates in the entire country. This report compares Louisiana’s civil justice climate with the rest of the nation and shows clearly that Louisiana’s current legal system allows trial lawyers to file more lawsuits for more money over more issues, promising big payouts from generous Louisiana juries. Meaningful tort reform legislation has been hard to pass into law with our current government. Passage of well-intentioned bills in 2020 focused on reducing the threshold for a jury trial to $10,000, reforming direct action, repealing the seatbelt gag order, but did not include changes to the prescriptive period or mandatory rate reductions. Passage of bills in 2022 were aimed at consumer protection and reducing deceptive advertising practices. Still, Louisiana improved in the rankings by only one spot in the recent ATRF report. These kinds of reforms are clearly a step in the right direction, but there’s much more work to be done. Louisiana’s civil justice climate impacts everything from the state’s ability to attract and retain business to our families who are working hard just to make ends meet. The old saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” is true – we all pay for abuses of our legal system. We are bombarded with advertisements that promise “jackpot justice” incessantly on billboards and over airwaves across the state. Allowing this abuse is detrimental to existing business, jobs and future economic development in Louisiana.
This past Monday, Mayor Arceneaux announced that he has formed a committee to look into photo ticket issues and remedy any problems with the way the program is being implemented. This is a positive development, but some aspects of photo tickets cannot be fixed. They are integral parts of the process, so the only way to eliminate these flaws is to eliminate photo tickets all together.
The sale of Arthur Circle School may bring a charter school for dyslexic students operated by Louisiana Key Academy.
Note: At the time of the writing of this feature, requested information from the city of Shreveport in regards to the who, what, where, etc. of the mayor’s transition team had not been received.
The Bossier City Council voted this week to reject modernity by cutting their SporTran budget nearly in half. The annual public transit budget is now only $500,000 in Bossier. SporTran CEO Dinero Washington said, “This will create changes for our thousands of Bossier City passengers, Shreveport passengers who ride the bus into Bossier City every day for work, and ADA Paratransit clients.” A step in the wrong direction for Bossier City as our young people leave the area for cities that have good transit, which includes light rail.
The Caddo Parish School Board welcomed four new members, Steve Umling, Barbara Smith-Iverson, Katie McLain and Jessica Yeates. This should be good for the system, which needs an infusion of new blood and new ideas.
Shreveport continues to have a problem with violent crime. Many areas of the nation saw a rise in crime after COVID-19 changed the way we did business. Until many deaths of the unvaccinated and a very high percentage of vaccinated individuals allowed populations to move around once again, we were hostages in our own homes and not being able to assess the mental breakdown of some of our fellow hostages.
1915 Citizens Bank Drive
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