Insight and Information on Louisiana Law, Litigation, and Legal Culture
Here are a few of the proposed bills from the House dealing with some of the items on Governor Blanco’s call list:
HB32 – providing for the suspension of performance of contracts due to impracticability of performance.
Continue Reading Proposed Legislation at 2005 First Extraordinary Session
The past twenty years has seen a dramatic increase in the volume of mass tort and other forms of complex litigation. As the volume of litigation has grown, so too have the burdens on the judiciary and the litigants. To address this growing problem, it is imperative that modern adjudicatory tools be adopted to achieve the goal of securing the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action. One such case management tool that has developed in the context of mass tort litigation – but that can be equally effective in other types of litigation – is the Lone Pine Order.
Continue Reading The Lone Pine Order As a Case Management Tool for Complex Litigation
By the Kean Miller Business Law Team
Many businesses in Louisiana are now assessing how Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita have affected and will continue to affect their contracts with clients, vendors, partners, and others. This article provides some general guidelines that businesses can use to determine if and how their contracts’ terms or Louisiana’s commercial law may affect contractual rights and obligations in light of the hurricanes.
Continue Reading Louisiana Contracts and the Doctrine of Impossibility
Hurricane Katrina will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst natural disaster to hit the United States. The current estimated cost to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina caused has reached $50.0 billion, much of which may be covered by insurance. Hurricane Katrina will have enormous impact on policyholders and their insurers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Policyholders will need to act carefully and in some cases promptly to protect their rights under insurance policies providing coverage for environmental claims, business interruption claims, property loss claims, and general liability claims.
Continue Reading Insurance Claims After Hurricane Katrina
Per its website at http://www.laed.uscourts.gov, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana has closed until further notice, and has suspended “all deadlines and delays in matters pending before this court…until ordered otherwise.”
La. R.S. 47:315.1 permits the owner of personal property destroyed by a natural disaster (i.e., one declared by the President to warrant federal assistance) to obtain a sales tax refund under certain circumstances. According to the Louisiana Department of Revenue (http://www.rev.state.la.us/forms/taxforms/1362I(10_02).pdf), a claim can be made for “taxes paid on movables such as clothing, boats, appliances, furniture, etc.,” but not fixed items such as carpeting, cooling systems, etc. You should read the referenced link for more information.
Persons suffering movable property losses must file a claim with the Department using Form 1362 (Natural Disaster Claim for Refund of State Sales Taxes Paid), Form R-1362I (Natural Disaster Claim for Refund – General Information), Form R-1362S (Natural Disaster Claim for Refund – Schedule), and Form R1363 (Refund of State Sales Taxes Paid on Titled Assets). The forms are available from the Department’s website at www.rev.state.la.us under “Tax Forms” and the sub-heading “Sales Tax.”
The full text of the statute follows:
Continue Reading Sales Tax Refund for Personal Property Destroyed By Natural Disaster
In light of the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision in the Suire case, businesses and industrial concerns may want to consider modification of their indemnity provisions in contracts in order to allow for the litigation of defense and indemnity claims during underlying tort litigation.
Continue Reading Consider Modification of Indemnity Agreements in Light of Louisiana Supreme Court Case
From the indispensable newsletter of Professor Frank L. Maraist, sage non pareil at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, comes a pointer to a recent First Circuit Court of Appeal opinion relating to protected medical records.
Article 510 of the Louisiana Code of Evidence establishes the basic privilege which protects a “confidential communication made for the purpose of advice, diagnosis or treatment” of a patient’s “health condition between or among himself or his representative, his health care provider, or their representatives.” This privilege belongs to the patient, to exercise or to waive, as he or she sees fit. Section 510(B)(2) lists a number of exceptions to the privilege.
In Moss v. State, 2004-2160 (La. App. 1 Cir. 6/24/05), 2005 WL 1490450, Ms. Smith and Mr. Moss were both killed in a head-on collision between their respective cars. Mr. Moss’ survivors sued the Department of Public Transportation for a defective highway. The Department urged the comparative fault of the late Ms. Smith – whose estate was not a party to the lawsuit.
Continue Reading Privileged Medical Records and La. R.S. 13:3715.1
Ernie the Attorney recently posted an excellent article on e-discovery, noting the increase in lawyer/client sanctions and general anguish due to ignorance of the range of material subject to discovery, and then how to find it and organize it. Clearly not just about e-mails anymore, electronic discovery offers a huge opportunity for skillful exploitation by…
