Yesterday, Gov. Jeff Landry rolled out a package of proposals to address Louisiana’s seemingly never-ending insurance crisis.

We’d love to tell you that the reaction to the governor’s announcement was positive. But we’d be lying if we did.

Nolan McKendry had the story, which is up here at the Hayride today, of Landry’s presentation, and here’s the substance…

The governor’s plan builds on legislative efforts from previous years, during which dozens of bills were passed to address insurance costs.

Landry also mentioned that he plans to sign bills which we’re previously vetoed, including a bill that “reversed” the Housley judicial precedent, which ” is court made law that mandates that injury, in any case, is presumed to be caused by the accident.”

To break the cycle of rising premiums, Landry proposed a series of reforms targeting what he identified as the root causes of high insurance costs.

“The amount of severe injuries that Louisianans received in automobile accidents is less than the national average. That, I’ll be honest, was a shock, even to me, the only outlier in the numbers is minor injury claims, under which Louisiana is almost double the national average ”

Landry suggested this discrepancy points to a “cultural problem” driven by excessive lawyer advertising, which he plans to curb through legislation.

On the insurance side, Landry criticized the industry’s practices, noting that “loss ratios, or the amount of money insurance companies pay out per dollar collected by policyholders, is better in Louisiana than it is in Texas and in Florida.”

He argued that this indicates insurance companies are profiting more in Louisiana than in neighboring states, a trend he aims to reverse by empowering the state’s insurance commissioner with greater authority, modeled after Texas and other states.

Among the specific measures proposed, Landry pledged to sign legislation previously vetoed by former Gov. John Bel Edwards, including a bill to limit lawyer advertising, which Landry said has a “cultural effect on our society, and it’s not healthy.”

He also called for prohibiting insurance companies from passing advertising costs onto policyholders.

“If insurance companies want to hire overpaid celebrities to appear in commercials and have geckos riding motorcycles, then our citizens should not pay for that in their premium increases,” Landry said.

Landry also addressed the issue of uninsured drivers, a concern echoed by Louisiana citizens in recent polls.

“We have a growing number of drivers who continue to use our highways in defiance of our laws by driving with no insurance,” Landry said, advocating for strengthening the ‘no pay, no play’ law to raise award exclusion limits from $15,000 to $800,000 for uninsured motorists.

Here’s the video of Landry’s presentation…

There’s a lot of potential agreement to be found in the policy points Landry made yesterday.

He’s talking about putting limits on attorney advertising; that issue was addressed with a bill authored in 2021 by then-state senator Barrow Peacock which passed both houses of the legislature but was vetoed by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards. Presumably, there could be a consensus forged again to do something about the fact that most of the billboards in the state and a shocking amount of the local TV advertising comes from Morris Bart, Gordon McKernan, Dudley DeBosier and the other big personal injury lawyers.

And then we’ll end up in court for years over the First Amendment implications of this.

But just before Landry’s press conference yesterday, he did a segment of the Moon Griffon show, and that generated more buzz, and not in a particularly good way, than the press avail did. Here’s how it went…

And there was a good bit of squawking following that. Our buddy Joe Cunningham offered up this…

There's something serious brewing in Louisiana, and it's not good. From a turkey hunt with some of the most notable Democrat boosters in the state and standing firmly opposed to the will of his voters, Jeff Landry appears set to turn on his base over insurance reform. pic.twitter.com/WupYW10GJK

— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) April 10, 2025

As Cunningham noted at his Substack page, the turkey reference comes from a hunting trip Landry recently took with an interesting cast of characters…

Last week, news broke that Governor Landry hosted a private turkey hunting trip at an exclusive Texas lodge, flying out legislative leaders and two of the state’s most prominent trial lawyers—Gordon McKernan and Digger Earles—for a few days of shooting and policy discussions.

The trip was paid for by “Protect Louisiana Values,” a PAC closely tied to the governor.

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a bipartisan roundtable at the Capitol. This was a political getaway bankrolled by a PAC with “values” in its name, hosting a private audience with the very lawyers who have bankrolled Democrat campaigns in Louisiana for decades—and who are now benefiting from the veto pen and policy preferences of a governor elected by conservatives.

State ethics laws prohibit public officials from receiving anything of economic value related to their official duties. Whether this trip crosses that line is a question for the ethics board. But even if it’s technically legal, it reeks of the kind of backroom dealmaking Louisiana voters thought they were rejecting in 2023.

Where Were the Other Voices?

Equally troubling is who wasn’t invited.

The Insurance Commissioner—elected statewide by the same voters who elected Landry—was nowhere to be found. Neither were any representatives from the insurance industry. It was a closed-door session between lawmakers and the lawyers who stand to benefit most from maintaining the current status quo.

Landry is touting a plan to empower the state Insurance Commissioner to cram down insurance rates he deems “excessive,” which some have interpreted as a trick bag for Tim Temple, who currently holds that job. Temple has stressed the need to bring in more competition, particularly with respect to auto insurance but also in the home insurance market; if he’s jamming insurers on rates you’d expect that won’t be well-received by insurers who currently don’t want to write insurance in the state.

Temple’s response was to share a Facebook post by Armond Schwing, Chairman & CEO at Schwing Insurance Agency, Inc. of New Iberia. Here’s what Schwing said…

Here’s my take on the Governor’s presser this morning. I’ve written it to read as a news article. I hope it helps people understand why we are where we are.

Governor Landry’s Insurance Plan Misses the Mark

This morning, Governor Jeff Landry appeared on the Moon Griffon show and commented that “data can be manipulated, and it will be manipulated” when discussing insurance rates in Louisiana. Just an hour later, during his press conference on proposed legislation to reduce insurance costs, he proceeded to rely on selectively presented and misleading data to support his proposals.

Unfortunately, nothing he offered will meaningfully reduce insurance rates in Louisiana. Some of the proposed changes may actually drive costs higher. The only potentially beneficial point was his support for eliminating the Housley Presumption,” which would then require injury claimants to prove that an accident caused their injuries. This reform could bring some fairness and consistency to the claims process.

Most of the governor’s talking points were framed as a “fair and balanced” approach to reform, supposedly considering both the trial lawyers’ and insurance companies’ perspectives. But the proposals aimed at trial lawyers amount to minor changes that will not address the true cost drivers behind our high insurance premiums.

For example, the governor suggested limiting attorney advertising — a move that would almost certainly face First Amendment legal challenges. It’s likely he knows this and is proposing it more for appearances than actual impact.

More concerning is the governor’s history of siding with the trial bar. Last year, he supported a bill to extend the “prescription” period for filing lawsuits from one year to two — claiming it would reduce costs. But that move only gives attorneys more time to build up medical expenses and inflate claims. Insurance rates have not gone down since.

Here are some important facts about Louisiana’s insurance landscape:

– Louisiana drivers file injury claims nearly twice as often as the national average.
– The average amount paid per injury claim in Louisiana is 59% higher than the national average.
– Louisianans are more than twice as likely to file lawsuits over injury claims than the national average.

This excessive litigation leads to higher claim costs for insurers — and those costs are passed directly onto policyholders in the form of higher premiums.

Meanwhile, trial attorneys are thriving. Firms like Laborde & Earls advertise that they’ve recovered over $1 billion in settlements and verdicts. Gordon McKernan claims over $3 billion. With attorney fees typically around 40%, that means approximately $1.6 billion has gone to lawyers — money that could have remained within insurance pools and potentially lowered rates for everyone.

If the governor is serious about reducing costs, reforms must directly address the high frequency of claims, inflated settlements, and excessive litigation. Unfortunately, what we saw today was more political posturing than meaningful progress.

Temple shared another post by Schwing, this one responding to a pair of X posts Landry made yesterday…

And here’s what Schwing said…

Not 7 hours ago Jeff Landry stood before God and everyone proclaiming to want a fair and balanced approach to solving the state’s insurance crisis. An approach that would focus on the faults of the Trial Attorneys and the Insurance Companies. 2 hours ago he made this post. It didn’t take him long to show his true colors. Where is the fair and balanced post about his good buddy trial lawyers who fly him to hunting trips on their private jets? I guess he’s fine with his buddies raking in BILLIONS of dollars on the backs of the insurance buying citizens of Louisiana. SMDH

And this came while a Facebook post by Sen. Blake Miguez was circulating…

Miguez attached an AI image which picked up on the turkeys motif…

So this morning Temple scheduled a press conference to respond to Landry, and this was the marker the governor laid down…

As you can see, we’re likely to have a full-on donnybrook in this legislative session, with conflicts between Landry and Temple, legislators and leadership, likely the House against the Senate.

And eagles and turkeys.

We’ll find out who the turkey really is by the time it’s over. Maybe it’ll be Landry and maybe it won’t.

But something Griffon said during that back-and-forth with Landry rings especially true, which is that regardless of the policy or the politics which might emanate from the fight over insurance reform, what matters to the people of the state is that our unsustainable insurance rates begin to come down.

If they do, then Landry – and probably everybody else involved – will get re-elected.

But if they don’t, the wrath of the voters will be biblical in scope.