The Louisiana State Governor has signed the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Glass Act into law, making Louisiana the most recent state to adopt legislation based on a model bill from the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL).
Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill into law on May 22, and it took effect the same day.
Louisiana auto glass repair and replacement companies must now obtain a claim number from customers prior to officially accepting a job. This provision effectively requires customers to contact their insurers via a third-party administrator prior to work being done.
The Louisiana Motor Vehicle Glass Act has become law.The new law also requires Louisiana glass companies to notify customers in writing if their vehicle’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) require recalibration and whether the company can or will perform the recalibration. The company must also inform customers if a recalibration was successful and, if not, that the vehicle should be taken elsewhere for recalibration.
The law also bans auto glass companies from:
- Offering anything of value in exchange for making an auto glass insurance claim;
- Charging more than the “fees and costs reasonably and customarily charged in the state”;
- Submitting untrue or incomplete documentation to an insured or insurer;
- Telling customers to lie about when or where damage occurred;
- “Falsely sign[ing] a work order” or misrepresenting the price of a repair or replacement; and
- Telling customers that their insurers will cover the full cost of a repair or replacement without verifying that with the insurers.
The act may have passed in Louisiana, but Auto Glass Safety Council members can still work together to fight similar legislation in other states. Registered members can find a sample letter for them to customize and use to address legislation based on the National Council of Insurance Legislators’ (NCOIL) model glass act in the member-exclusive document library HERE.