Breaux Law Firm Co-Owner Evan Breaux Warns of 'Systematic Erosion' of Victim Rights Under New Louisiana Tort Laws

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Evan Breaux, co-owner of the New Orleans-based Breaux Law Firm, today issued a stark warning to the citizens of Louisiana regarding a series of sweeping legislative changes, passed under the banner of "tort reform," that he argues have systematically eroded the rights of injured individuals and created a legal minefield designed to benefit insurance companies at the expense of public justice.

"For years, the scales of justice in Louisiana have been deliberately and systematically tilted against the very people our civil courts are meant to protect: the injured," said Breaux, a leading personal injury attorney in the region. "What we have witnessed is not reform, but a calculated dismantling of a system that once provided a fair path to recovery. These laws, sold to the public with the promise of lower insurance rates, have instead created a complex and hostile environment for accident victims, forcing them to fight harder than ever for the compensation they rightfully deserve."

In this comprehensive analysis, Breaux offers his expert perspective on this new legal landscape, dissecting the most impactful legislation and explaining what it means for the average person who has been hurt through no fault of their own.

The First Wave: How the 2020 "Civil Justice Reform Act" Rigged the Game

The campaign to reshape Louisiana's personal injury law began in earnest with the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2020, which took effect on January 1, 2021. Breaux identifies this legislation as the foundational attack on the rights of the injured, introducing several key changes that immediately disadvantaged victims. 

"The 2020 law was the opening salvo, and its effects were immediate and devastating for our clients," Breaux explained. "It was presented as a solution to high insurance rates, but in practice, it was the first major blow to a fair recovery. It fundamentally changed how we calculate the cost of an injury and what a jury is allowed to know, and not for the better."

Two of the most damaging provisions, according to Breaux, were the modification of the Collateral Source Rule and the new prohibition on naming insurers at trial.

• Gutting Fair Compensation for Medical Bills: For decades, Louisiana's Collateral Source Rule ensured that a negligent party was held responsible for the full value of the medical care a victim required. The 2020 law upended this principle. Now, a victim's recovery for medical expenses is largely limited to the discounted amount their health insurer pays, not the full amount billed by the hospital. "Imagine your health insurance discount—something you pay for every month—being gifted to the person who hit you. That's the reality of this law," Breaux stated. "It transfers a financial benefit from the prudent victim directly to the wrongdoer and their insurer. To make matters worse, the jury only hears the full billed amount. A judge then slashes that award behind the scenes after the verdict, leaving victims feeling blindsided and cheated out of the compensation the jury felt they deserved." This artificially deflates the value of the entire case, as insurance adjusters now use this lower number to justify making unfairly low settlement offers from the very beginning. 
• Creating the "Hidden Defendant": The 2020 Act also created a legal fiction in the courtroom by making it illegal to inform the jury about the existence of liability insurance or the identity of the insurer. "This creates an 'empty chair' scenario that is profoundly misleading," Breaux warned. "A jury sees an individual defendant and naturally worries that a large verdict will ruin them financially. What they are forbidden from knowing is that a multi-billion-dollar insurance corporation, which collected premiums for this exact risk, is the one that will actually pay the verdict. This creates a false sympathy that can drastically reduce what a victim receives. It skews the entire process away from a fair evaluation of the victim's suffering." 

The Campaign Continues: A Cascade of Anti-Victim Legislation

The 2020 Act was just the beginning. In the years since, the legislature has continued its campaign, passing a cascade of new laws that further complicate the path to justice.

"If the 2020 law was a blow, the 2024 legislative session was a knockout punch to one of the most important consumer protections in Louisiana history," said Breaux.

• A Deceptive Deadline Change: In 2024, lawmakers finally extended Louisiana's notoriously short one-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims to a more reasonable two years. However, Breaux cautions that this was a strategic maneuver. "While we were glad to finally see the one-year deadline extended, it was a classic legislative sleight-of-hand. This single, sensible change was passed in the same session that saw the gutting of the Direct Action Statute. It was a 'sweetener' to make the more bitter pill of insurer protection easier for the public to swallow." Critically, the new two-year deadline only applies to injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024; anyone injured before that date is still bound by the old one-year rule.
• Slamming the Courthouse Door on Insurers: For generations, Louisiana's Direct Action Statute gave citizens a unique and vital right: the ability to sue an at-fault party's insurance company directly. A 2024 law, House Bill 337, has all but eliminated this right. "For decades, Louisianans had a straightforward path to accountability. Now, that path is gone," Breaux lamented. "Except in very rare circumstances, victims are now forced into a convoluted process of suing an individual first. This creates delays and expenses that only benefit the insurer hiding in the background. It's a strategy of litigation by attrition, designed to wear victims down until they accept a lowball offer just to end the ordeal."

The Broken Promise: Where Are the Lower Insurance Rates?

The entire tort reform project was sold to the Louisiana public on one central promise: that restricting victim rights would lead to lower auto insurance rates. Proponents, including powerful business lobbies, predicted premium reductions of up to 25%. 

"That promise has been unequivocally broken," Breaux declared. "The public was sold a bill of goods. In the years following these so-called reforms, rates have not significantly decreased, and in many cases, they've continued to climb. The data is clear: these laws have done little more than pad insurer profits while stripping citizens of their fundamental rights. Louisiana remains one of the most expensive states in the nation for auto insurance, proving that the narrative blaming 'lawsuit abuse' was a misdirection from the start." 

Consumer advocacy groups have pointed to data showing that insurers in Louisiana are highly profitable and deny nearly half of all liability claims without any payment, suggesting that insurer practices, not victim lawsuits, are a primary driver of high costs. 

An Even Steeper Uphill Battle on the Horizon

Breaux warns that the legislative assault on victim rights is not over, with more damaging laws set to take effect in the near future.

• The 51% Fault Cliff: Starting in 2026, Louisiana will shift to a "modified comparative fault" system. "This is perhaps one of the most dangerous changes yet," Breaux explained. "Under this new law, if a jury finds you are even 51% responsible for an accident, you will be barred from recovering a single penny. It creates a cliff-edge where being found just one percentage point over the threshold means the difference between a partial recovery and complete financial ruin."
• A Heavier Burden of Proof: Another law, effective in 2025, eliminates a long-standing evidentiary rule that presumed an accident caused an injury if the victim was healthy before the crash and symptoms appeared after. "This change places a heavier and more expensive burden on plaintiffs, who will now have to hire costly medical experts to prove what is often just common sense," Breaux said.

Navigating the New Maze: A Call for Fierce Advocacy

The cumulative effect of these laws is a justice system that is more complex, more expensive, and more slanted in favor of insurance companies than ever before.

"The legal landscape has been deliberately engineered to be confusing and difficult for the average person," Breaux concluded. "Our mission at the Breaux Law Firm is to provide the clarity and strength needed to navigate this new maze. We believe every injured person deserves a fierce advocate who understands these new rules and is prepared to fight back against a system that has been tilted in favor of corporations and insurance companies. We have dedicated ourselves to mastering every nuance of this new legal framework, and we will not be deterred from our ultimate goal: securing justice for the people of Louisiana."

About Breaux Law Firm: The Breaux Law Firm is a premier personal injury law firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana, dedicated to representing individuals who have been injured due to the negligence of others. Co-owned by Evan Breaux, the firm has a reputation for tenacious advocacy and an unwavering commitment to its clients. The attorneys at Breaux Law Firm specialize in navigating the complexities of Louisiana's personal injury laws to ensure victims receive the full and fair compensation they deserve.

SOURCE Breaux Law Firm