By Lewis Nibbelin, Research Writer, Triple-I
Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple recently announced that new litigation reforms have helped drive improvement in the state’s auto insurance market, with more than 20 rate decreases filed since mid-2025.
Temple hopes for further rate changes as the market continues to stabilize, citing Florida’s recent premium reductions after sweeping tort reform legislation in 2022 and 2023.
Longstanding affordability challenges
Among those who filed for rate decreases include Louisiana’s largest auto insurers, with the latest reductions impacting nearly 470,000 Progressive policyholders, or roughly 23.5 percent of the state’s auto market. More than one million State Farm policies also achieved lower average rates implemented this month.
While the statewide decreases can offer relief for drivers in one of the least affordable states for auto insurance, Temple cautioned that rates for individual policyholders will differ based on personal risk factors, urging consumers to shop among the “30 companies that have taken a rate decrease.”
The announcement arrives less than a year after Louisiana lawmakers passed a 2025 tort reform package to curb excessive lawsuits and a rate of bodily injury claims more than twice the national average. Beyond fueling higher insurance premiums in the state, such practices generate an annual $965 “tort tax” on every Louisianan and cost over 40,562 jobs per year, as highlighted by Triple-I’s consumer awareness campaign to build support for the reforms.
Other 2025 legislative measures, however, stipulate increased regulatory intervention in rate-setting, which can create further strain on an insurance market just beginning to recover. Another bill targeting nuclear verdicts (awards of $10 million or more) also failed to pass, playing a role in the state’s recurring spot on the American Tort Reform Foundation’s annual list of “judicial hellholes.”
Noting that reduced accident frequency contributed to the rate changes, Temple said in a statement that “we should not necessarily expect to see this level of decrease in future years unless we continue to pursue legal reform that addresses the foundational reasons our rates are the highest in the country.”
Lessons from Florida
Measurable benefits from Louisiana’s existing reforms may require a few more years to unfold, Temple added, based on the trajectory of similar legislation in Florida. In 2022, Florida accounted for over 70 percent of the nation’s homeowners claim-related litigation, despite representing only 15 percent of homeowners’ insurance claims, according to the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR). State legislators responded to the crisis with several tort laws that, among other things, eliminated one-way attorney fees and assignment of benefits (AOB) for property insurance claims.
Under the reforms, 17 new insurance companies have entered the Sunshine State and dozens of homeowners’ and auto insurers have filed for rate decreases, with Citizens Property Insurance – the state’s insurer of last resort – approved for major average rate cuts this spring, according to a recent announcement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A 50 percent drop in Citizens policies in 2025 helped facilitate the cuts, reflecting the largest transition of policies back to the private market in a decade. Later that year, additional cost-savings achieved through the reforms helped state regulators secure nearly $1 billion in premium refunds for Progressive auto insurance policyholders in the state.
Though the specific policy levers may differ, Florida’s reforms continue to model the kinds of market improvements that states like Louisiana and Georgia can expect after successfully passing their own tort legislation. State government moves like these are essential to eradicating legal system abuse and keeping insurance affordable and available, especially as legislative challenges to legal reform persist.
“Premiums are lowering because we’ve enacted real reforms and withstood the pressure to reverse course,” DeSantis said. “We will hold firm in our commitment not to go back to the broken insurance market of the past.”
Learn More:
Significant Tort Reform Advances in Louisiana
Florida Governor Touts Auto Insurance Rebates, Tort Reform Success
Litigation Reform Works: Florida Auto Insurance Premium Rates Declining
Louisiana Senator Seeks Resumption of Resilience Investment Program
Louisiana Reforms: Progress, But More Is Needed to Stem Legal System Abuse
Who’s Financing Legal System Abuse? Louisianans Need to Know