Louisianians are feeling the burden of rising costs for everything from feeding our families to fueling our cars. We can argue that many things impact those costs, and in Louisiana, lawsuit abuse is quietly driving up the cost of doing business and making it more expensive to live and work in our state.

To address this important issue, civil justice reform has been a priority for me since taking office. While my colleagues and I have made some important progress to address Louisiana’s pervasive culture of lawsuit abuse, more remains to be done.

Observed annually in the first full week of October, Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week underscores the urgency for comprehensive reforms to ensure a fairer and more balanced civil justice system that benefits us all.

Hardworking Louisiana families and businesses simply cannot afford to foot the bill for lawsuit abuse – and we shouldn’t have to. Last year alone, every Louisiana resident paid more than $1,100 in a hidden ‘lawsuit tax,’ resulting from the costs of legal system abuses being passed down through inflated prices and reduced economic growth.

The issue of third-party litigation financing (TPLF), in particular, is a growing problem in Louisiana and across the country. This practice of outside foreign and sovereign entities financing lawsuits in exchange for a share of the payout is distorting the civil justice system. Costs associated with TPLF are also passed along to families and businesses. We are feeling more than $31 billion in added inflationary pressure across the economy, driven in part by higher insurance and liability-related costs. Additionally, over $54 billion in lost annual economic output can be attributed to TPLF, weakening job growth and income gains that families rely on to keep up with these rising costs.

I have sponsored legislation that would limit recovery under these agreements and provide more transparency around them, and I will continue to work with my colleagues in the legislature  to protect litigants from exploitation by outside financiers. Other states have taken action to address this issue, including North Carolina, which recently enacted legislation restricting third-party litigation investments. These efforts reflect growing recognition that greater transparency and accountability are needed around who is financing lawsuits and what they stand to gain.

Action is also being prompted at the federal level, with more than 200 companies recently signing onto a letter recommending changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to address TPLF. This would require disclosure of these funding agreements to courts and parties, as we have tried to do in Louisiana.

Some federal district courts and judges are taking matters into their own hands by adopting local rules. Just last week, Louisiana’s Western District filed a disclosure rule requiring parties to file statements identifying third-party funders, provide the funders’ addresses, and include a summary of the financing arrangement, which is a step in the right direction.

When undisclosed investors bankroll lawsuits for profit, the costs are far-reaching, turning our courtrooms into casinos that are open for business to private investors. With little oversight, TPLF also raises concerns about conflicts of interest and who may ultimately be influencing or controlling the litigation.

All of us stand to lose if this highly unregulated and purposefully opaque practice becomes even more commonplace in Louisiana. I urge my colleagues to stand with me in bringing greater accountability to our civil justice system and passing meaningful TPLF reform into law.