Deadline for filing Katrina claims has come

St. Tammany News

Local clerk of courts office handles an average of 632 lawsuits per month since the hurricane

Parish residents rushed to file Katrina claims against insurance companies before this week's deadline.

Wednesday's deadline, two years after Hurricane Katrina struck the parish, produced a slew of lawsuits.

St. Tammany Parish Clerk of Court Malise Prieto said 643 lawsuits have been filed since Aug. 24 in Covington.

That's an average of 161 per day, five times more than the normal rate of 30 per day, she said.

In August 2005, before the storm struck, the clerk's office handled 466 suits, she said. Now, the office's monthly average is 632 suits. The rate of lawsuits is another indication of the storm's lasting impact on the parish.

"Our whole world is more complicated," Prieto said.

Of those lawsuits, the majority are homeowners who are suing insurance companies claiming they have not been compensated for wind damage sustained during Katrina, state district court Judge Raymond Childress said.

Prieto said it is unlikely plaintiffs will get their case before a judge before next year.

"We'll be working on this stuff for a while," she said.

Childress said he has an upcoming court docket stacked with homeowners' claims against insurance companies, many of them filed well before Wednesday's deadline.

Moreover, Wednesday's deadline is legal "gray area," Prieto said. Until state courts rule on it, the deadline could be extended until today, which would allow the tally of lawsuits to grow, she said.

Meanwhile, Childress said conversations with other legal professionals have left them wondering whether attorneys will be more likely to request a jury to decide on homeowners' claims instead of a judge. Insurance companies are unpopular in the region and, "If there's ever a time to have a jury trial in a civil case, it's now," he said.

But, he cautioned that's no guarantee plaintiffs would be more likely to win with a jury. St. Tammany Parish jurors are usually "level-headed" and unlikely to award frivolous claims, he said.

Complicating matters is the cost of a jury. According to state law, a case must be worth more than $50,000 to place it before a jury, and an attorney who wants one will have to fork over a bond to pay for it, he said.

The minimum bond is $1,000, and for an attorney who is handling several different homeowners' claims, that, along with other court costs, will add up quickly, Childress said.