Louisiana Insurance Law and Regulations
Louisiana is a civil-law state, and its Insurance Code layers civilian concepts onto a statutory regulatory scheme. Know the regulator: the Louisiana Department of Insurance, headed by the Commissioner of Insurance, licenses insurers, producers, and adjusters (company, independent, and public, plus emergency adjusters), reviews rate filings (largely file-and-use), conducts market-conduct examinations, and enforces the unfair trade practice and unfair claim settlement practice provisions (La. R.S. 22:1961 et seq.).
Rules that recur in questions:
- Direct action (La. R.S. 22:1269): an injured third party may sue the liability insurer directly, alone or with the insured. It applies to liability coverage, not first-party property claims.
- Comparative fault (La. C.C. art. 2323): pure comparative fault; joint tortfeasors are solidarily liable.
- Prescription: one year for delictual (tort) claims (art. 3492); ten years for contract actions, which generally govern suits on the policy (art. 3499).
- Valued policy law (La. R.S. 22:1311): on a total loss of immovable property by a covered peril, the insurer owes the full policy amount, not ACV.
- UM coverage must be offered at bodily injury limits; a valid rejection or selection of lower limits requires the Commissioner's approved form.
- Cancellation notice: generally 10 days for nonpayment of premium, 30 days for other reasons.
- Claim payment: 30 days after satisfactory written proof of loss (La. R.S. 22:1892), with penalties for arbitrary and capricious conduct; LIGA responds to insolvencies within statutory caps, and Louisiana Citizens is the residual property market.
Traps: importing common-law contributory negligence; assuming LIGA pays full policy limits; and treating direct action as creating coverage the policy never granted.