Statute of Limitations Inspires Wave of Lawsuits in Louisiana

Judging by this Insurance Journal article, not everybody buys that the Louisiana legislation extending the statute of limitations on Katrina and Rita claims will hold:

The line of people suing insurance companies - just in case something derails Louisiana’s one-year extension of the deadline for victims of last year’s hurricanes - spilled out of the clerk of court’s office in New Orleans Aug. 28.[...]

Louisiana allows only one year to settle insurance claims, the shortest limit of any Gulf Coast state. However, on Aug. 25 the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld a one-year extension, moving the deadline to Sept. 1, 2007. Victims of Hurricane Rita have until Oct. 1, 2007.[...]

All in all, 1,134 suits were filed last week alone, some 58 percent of them hurricane-related, compared with 1,388 suits for the entire month of August 2005, Atkins said.

By the time the deadline was upheld, many homeowners already had their legal efforts in progress, and decided to file to be on the safe side.

“I just can’t get them to resolve it,” said Algiers resident Jessie Rose, who prepared her lawsuit against St. Paul Travelers Insurance herself with the help of the Loyola Law Clinic. “They’ll pay for a couple of tiles on the roof, but not the whole roof, yet it’s leaking.”