Understanding How Louisiana’s Seat Belt Law Could Affect Your Case

Seat belts are designed to keep you safe if an accident happens. Louisiana seat belt laws were updated to make driving safer for everyone. Now, everyone in the car, no matter where they are sitting, must wear a seat belt.

These seat belt laws are crucial because they help protect people from getting hurt in car crashes. These updates are important because they affect how drivers and passengers need to buckle up to stay safe and follow the rules. But how do these changes impact car accident claims? Can seat belt laws affect auto insurance rates?

Let’s take a closer look at these issues. This article will give you an overview of the seat belt laws and their potential implications for accident victims.

Quick Summary:

  • Louisiana’s seat belt laws, in line with federal standards, require all drivers and passengers to buckle up. The law, signed by Governor John Bel Edwards, includes stricter rules for child passenger safety. Children under 2 must use a rear-facing car seat, while those over 2 must switch to a forward-facing seat. Children older than 4 should use a booster seat until they are 9, at which point they can use an adult seat belt if it fits properly. Additionally, children under 13 must sit in the rear seat when available.
  • The seat belt laws in Louisiana affect how accident claims are handled in important ways. Although not wearing a seat belt can lead to fines, it generally does not affect your ability to receive compensation for your injuries directly. Louisiana uses comparative negligence, meaning your compensation might be reduced based on how much fault you share for the accident. If you are partially at fault, your compensation will be reduced proportionally, but you can still receive compensation for the part of the damages that aren’t your fault.
  • Seat belt laws are intended to improve road safety but may indirectly influence auto insurance rates. Wearing seat belts and properly restraining children can significantly reduce the risk of serious injuries and deaths in crashes. While the laws are designed to make driving safer and could eventually help lower rates by reducing severe accidents, changes in rates may take time. Lawmakers are also exploring other methods to reduce high auto insurance costs, such as tort reform, but these efforts have faced challenges. Insurance experts suggest that factors like poor credit, urban congestion, and rising medical costs play a larger role in influencing insurance rates.

What are Louisiana’s Seat Belt Laws?

Louisiana has safety belt laws similar to those in other states since federal law mandates safety belt law standards for all 50 states. So in Louisiana, “Buckle Up or Else” is the law. The federal government also requires anyone transporting a child or children under the age of 13 to have them properly secured as well.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed into law a bill to change child passenger safety seat laws. Any child younger than 2 must be restrained in a rear-facing child safety seat until they reach an appropriate weight or height limit. The law requires that a child older than 2, who has outgrown the rear-facing child safety seats, must be placed in a forward-facing child safety seat. If they’re older than 4 and have outgrown the forward-facing safety seats, the child must be restrained by a belt-positioning booster seat secured with a seat belt, while a child who is 9 or older can use the car’s adult seat belt if it fits correctly.

Any children under the age of 13 must also be in a rear seat when available. While the law is designed to protect the safety of children, lawmakers have also been concerned about high auto insurance rates and ways to help make them more affordable.

How Can Louisiana’s Seat Belt Laws Impact Accident Claims?

Louisiana’s seat belt laws are important for keeping everyone safe, but they also change how accident claims are handled. Here’s how these rules can affect you if you’re in a car accident:

Reduces Compensation

If you’re in a car accident and weren’t wearing a seat belt, you can face fines for violating seat belt laws, but your ability to receive compensation for your crash isn’t affected because you weren’t wearing one. However, Louisiana is an at-fault state that requires auto insurance companies of the at-fault driver to pay for all of the damages caused by the accident. If the other driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt, you can be certain the insurance company will fight to put the blame entirely on that driver.

Comparative Negligence

If you were in a car accident and hadn’t been wearing a seat belt, it’s important to note that Louisiana is a comparative negligence state. Usually, under comparative negligence law, when you are at fault for any part of the accident, your potential damages can be reduced in proportion to your degree of responsibility.

However, Louisiana no longer recognizes these seat belt defense laws. As a result, injured parties who were not wearing seat belts at the time of their accident can still recover maximum compensation for their medical bills and other costs resulting from the accident.

When an accident happens, the fault or negligence of each driver is determined based on how much they individually contributed to the cause of the accident. For example, if you’re found to be 20% responsible for your injuries because you weren’t buckled up, you might only get 80% of the total amount of money you would have received.

Will the Louisiana Seat Belt Laws Lower Auto Insurance Rates?

Regardless of what lawmakers do, auto insurance rates are not likely to come down overnight. They will look at how the laws impact accident numbers and injury claims before deciding if they can offer lower rates. But we do know that by wearing seat belts and properly restraining children, drivers can reduce the risk of serious injury and death in a crash by half. We also know that while wearing your seat belt is required by law, driving without one can be very reckless and lead to serious injuries.

Insurance companies like it when accidents are less severe, as it means they don’t have to pay out as much in claims. Over time, this could help lower insurance rates because the risk of paying for expensive claims decreases.

What Are Louisiana Lawmakers Doing to Reduce High Insurance Rates?

Part of the reason for passing the Louisiana seat belt law is that state lawmakers continue to grapple with ways to reduce Louisiana’s sky-high auto insurance costs. There have been different bills in the Louisiana Legislature to help lower the state’s auto insurance rates, including one by state Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, to enact tort reform by sending more car accident trials to juries rather than judges and extending the time to file a lawsuit from one year to two so both sides have more time to settle the case. The bill, which would also have limited what plaintiffs could collect from insurance companies for injuries, failed to pass after Talbot admitted he got no commitment from insurance companies that his bill would lower rates.

The state’s insurance industry has already said tort reform won’t lower rates. Property Casualty Insurers of America even noted that litigation was dead last among a list of factors affecting auto insurance premiums. More significant factors being cited include:

  • Poor credit scores among driver
  • Heavy urban congestion
  • Poorly maintained roads
  • Rising medical costs
  • Distracted driving

The causes of auto insurance rates are complex and not easily assigned to a single factor. Still, Louisiana lawmakers have chosen to focus on stronger enforcement of seat belt laws as one step.


Call Our Louisiana Personal Injury Attorneys Now!

Louisiana’s seat belt laws are all about making the roads safer by making sure everyone wears a seat belt. If you’re involved in a car accident in Louisiana and are not sure what to do next, our Monroe personal injury attorneys at E. Orum Young Law will assist you with your claim. Every case is unique, and we’ll provide personalized advice based on your specific situation.

Our personal injury law firm is here to help you make sense of Louisiana seat belt laws and how they could impact your accident claims. We’ll explain who needs to wear a seat belt and how these laws apply to you. We’ll guide you through the process and explain how not wearing a seat belt could impact the compensation you might receive. We’ll protect your interests and ensure you understand your potential legal solutions.

Contact us now for your free case review and let us help you explore your options. We’re here to walk you through every step and ensure you’re fully informed and protected. Our goal is to make the legal process as clear and stress-free as possible.