NEW ORLEANS — In a significant legal victory for Louisiana families overcharged by bail bonds companies, a state court judge has declared that a 2019 law shielding those companies from having to pay back their clients is unconstitutional.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and William P. Quigley, Loyola University New Orleans law professor emeritus, filed a lawsuit against Blair’s Bail Bond Inc. and Bankers Insurance Company on behalf of their client Jerome Morgan after the companies refused to refund overcharges to Morgan and others.
The lawsuit argued that the Louisiana Constitution prohibits the Legislature from retroactively granting immunity to private companies. In 2019, Louisiana’s commissioner of insurance ordered bail bond and insurance companies to refund overcharged customers dating back to 2005. Bankers and Blair’s refused to comply and lobbied the Legislature, which passed the retroactive law.
“The district court ruling is an important victory for the rule of law and for New Orleans families who were overcharged for their bail bond,” said Micah West, senior supervising attorney, SPLC. “The court’s decision reaffirms that the Legislature may not pass retroactive laws designed to protect politically well-connected companies from liability at the expenses of customers like Mr. Morgan.”
A community advocate for criminal justice reform, Morgan was wrongfully convicted of a crime and subsequently overcharged his bail bond. The ruling requires bail bond companies to issue refunds to Morgan and any other clients overcharged between 2005 and 2019, as previously ordered by the insurance commissioner. An SPLC investigation found that from 2005 to 2017, 21 bail bond companies overcharged nearly 50,000 people in New Orleans, totaling an estimated $6 million.
“Jerome Morgan and the Southern Poverty Law Center have been working to bring justice to thousands of families in New Orleans for nearly ten years,” said Quigley. “Despite resistance from big insurance companies and the Louisiana Legislature, the road to justice is becoming clearer and nearer.”
Similar to fining people for sleeping outside and jailing people for unpaid garbage collection fees, overcharging people for bail bond highlights how poverty and the criminal legal system can intersect to unfairly harm Southern communities. The SPLC’s Poverty Is Not a Line campaign has been working to highlight these issues in an effort to promote policies that support economic justice throughout the Deep South.
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About the Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people. For more information, visit www.splcenter.org.