In August of last year, Tim James Inc. announced plans to construct a roadway from Caddo to Bossier Parish with a toll bridge over the Red River.
Why do some council members want to pay Flemings $100,000 to answer phone calls?
When the company issuing photo tickets in Shreveport made their presentation to the City Council, they stated that a specific number of speed violations in school zones. Recently, they claimed that this number has been reduced by their program, making school zones safer. Media in town have accepted these figures without question giving them out as facts. The company also made a deal promising the city 65% of the money from all tickets issued. However, the speeding numbers’ throw out do not explain the methodology used, nor is the money transferred to the city what would be expected from the number of tickets issued.
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.
1915 Citizens Bank Drive
Bossier City, LA. 71111
(318) 929-5152
