BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – As the new year gets started, there are a number of new Louisiana laws that went into effect. The Louisiana Legislature passed 776 laws in 2022.
Here are a few that kick in this week.
First up is the bill that caused a lot of conversation during the session. Act 440 allows Louisianans to sue websites with content that is over a third pornography for not having age verification. Lawmakers pushed the bill with the message that porn is too easily accessible to children on the internet. Websites will be encouraged, but not forced, to have some form of state ID presented to access content. If they do not, it could lead to civil cases.
A new law now requires healthcare providers to give victims of sexually oriented crimes information about emergency contraception. Act 513 lets victims have the option to ask for FDA-approved drugs, such as Plan B, should a pregnancy test come out negative.
The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) also has new regulations for reporting potential human trafficking. Under Act 662, if they suspect a case of human trafficking, they must report it to State Police regardless of whether or not the guardians are responsible.
The legislature also passed a number of bills to deal with the insurance crisis around natural disasters. Act 591 creates the Hurricane Mediation program. This allows for a third-party entity to help settle some disputes between policyholders and their insurance companies. The goal is to get a fair deal worked out for people trying to rebuild after storms with an emergency declaration.
Now lawmakers are gearing up for another year of bills and will begin filing new ones starting next month. To read more about the bills that passed in the 2022 session, click here.
The 2023 session will begin on April 10.
