2022 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE BILL NO. 103
BY SENATOR FOIL
1 AN ACT
2 To enact R.S. 9:5605.2, relative to legal malpractice; to provide relative to filing time
3 periods; to provide relative to the burden of proof; to provide relative to collectability
4 of damages; and to provide for related matters.
5 Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana:
6 Section 1. R.S. 9:5605.2 is hereby enacted to read as follows:
7 ยง5605.2. Collectability rule
8 In any action for damages by a client against an attorney, the client's
9 recovery against the attorney shall be limited to the amount of damages which
10 the attorney shows by a preponderance of the evidence would have been the
11 maximum amount of damages that the client could have collected in the client's
12 underlying action in which he was represented by the attorney.
13 Section 2. The provisions of this Act are intended to legislatively overrule the
14 holding that collectability of damages against the tortfeasor in an underlying lawsuit is not
15 an affirmative defense to a legal malpractice action, as held in the Louisiana Supreme Court
16 decision, Ewing v. Westport Ins. Co., 315 So.3d 175 (La. 2020).
17 Section 3. This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2022.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
APPROVED:
ACT No. 285
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Coding: Words which are struck through are deletions from existing law;
words in boldface type and underscored are additions.