Rachel Bodine graduated from college with a BA in English. She has since worked as a Feature Writer in the insurance industry and gained a deep knowledge of state and countrywide insurance laws and rates. Her research and writing focus on helping readers understand their insurance coverage and how to find savings. Her expert advice on insurance has been featured on sites like PhotoEnforced, All...

Full Bio →

Written by

Leslie Kasperowicz holds a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Winnipeg. She spent several years as a Farmers Insurance CSR, gaining a solid understanding of insurance products including home, life, auto, and commercial and working directly with insurance customers to understand their needs. She has since used that knowledge in her more than ten years as a writer, largely in the insurance...

Full Bio →

Reviewed by Leslie Kasperowicz
Former Farmers Insurance CSR

UPDATED: Nov 12, 2020

Advertiser Disclosure

It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right coverage choices.

Advertiser Disclosure: We strive to help you make confident auto insurance decisions. Comparison shopping should be easy. We are not affiliated with any one auto insurance provider and cannot guarantee quotes from any single provider.

Our insurance industry partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about auto insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything auto insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by auto insurance experts.

Louisiana State FlagKnown as the “Bayou State” and still fresh in the nation’s minds following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana is one of the most diverse states anywhere in the country. Many are drawn to New Orleans, which has been almost fully repaired following the hurricane and is getting back to its roots as the “Big Easy”, drawing in tourists for festivals such as Mardi Gras. Let’s take a look at Louisiana’s auto insurance situation, including laws and other things that drivers should know before purchasing their insurance policies.

Louisiana Auto Insurance Laws And Minimum Requirements

In Louisiana, the state liability coverage minimums are:

  • Bodily Injury Coverage – $15,000 per person
  • Bodily Injury Coverage – $30,000 per accident
  • Property Damage Coverage – $25,000 per accident

Take a look at how Louisiana’s minimum rates compare with surrounding states.

View as image

Optional coverage options in Louisiana includes:

  • Comprehensive Coverage
  • Collision Coverage
  • Personal Injury Protection (PIP)
  • Medical Payments Coverage
  • Rental Reimbursement Coverage
  • Roadside Assistance / Towing Covergae
  • Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UIM)

When legislators in Louisiana put together the state’s auto insurance laws, they chose to stick with the standard “tort” system in use in most other states around the country. Under this system, when an accident occurs one of the drivers will be deemed to be the driver “at fault” for causing the accident. This driver’s insurance company will then be responsible for paying out claims for injuries and damages, and this driver will be the one who is targeted with any lawsuits that result from the accident itself.

State law requires that all drivers purchase auto insurance to be allowed to legally drive their automobiles on the state’s roads. There are two main policies that drivers are required to purchase; all of the other policies offered by auto insurance companies are optional.

The first policy required is known as Bodily Injury Liability insurance. This policy pays out claims for medical treatment expenses, rehabilitation costs, lost wages and the like for injuries stemming from an accident where you are the party at fault. For instance, if you rear-ended a car stopped at a traffic light, causing the driver ahead to get whiplash, their injury claims would be made against this policy and your insurance company would pay out to the maximum of your coverage. The minimum required coverage in Louisiana is $15,000 per person, per accident and $30,000 for all parties per accident. These amounts are somewhat low, so it’s recommended that drivers in Louisiana consider bumping this up with supplemental coverage if it can be afforded.

The second policy legally required in Louisiana is Property Damage Liability insurance. This is the insurance that pays out claims to those who suffer vehicle, property and other damage as the result of an accident where you are the party at fault for causing it. For instance, if you swerve to avoid a child in the street and veer in to the other lane and hit a car, the costs of making repairs to the car you’ve hit will be claimed against your Property Damage Liability insurance. The minimum required coverage in Louisiana is $25,000.

Compare over 200 auto insurance companies at once!

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Louisiana Car Insurance Rates

Insurance rates for drivers in Louisiana have always been a bit higher than those in most other states, and this trend has continued into 2011. The current statewide average cost for a year’s worth of auto insurance is $1784, which is higher than the national average of $1430.

View as image

Those who live in major cities in Louisiana, however, tend to have it much worse. For those residing in Baton Rouge, you’re looking at about $2150 to insure the average automobile for a year, and drivers in New Orleans can expect an average bill of $2262, which is close to $200 per month.

View as image

There are a lot of factors that auto insurance companies take into consideration when determining your rates. Take a look at our overview here.

View as image

While many of these factors are simply based on your own driving record, two things that affect even the safest of drivers are age and gender. As with most states, males typically pay higher auto insurance rates than females. Teenage males can easily expect to pay $100 more for their coverage than females.

View as image

With premiums this high, it’s important to really shop around throughout the various insurance companies available, and grill them to find out any discounts that you might qualify for.

View as image

But which companies are the largest, holding the most market share percentage in the region?

View as image

Louisiana Driving Statistics

The news is positive for Louisiana’s drivers when it comes to crash rates, as they have continued to trend downward since peaking earlier in the decade. In 2009, there were 155,100 total vehicle crashes reported, with 824 fatalities resulting from these accidents. Both of these figures were decreases from 2008, which saw 157,200 crashes and 915 fatalities. These decreases come as the state saw an increase of nearly 1% in the total number of vehicle miles traveled, which means that although Louisiana’s drivers are taking to the roads more often, they are becoming better, safer drivers. If this trend should continue, it will help decrease the statewide average cost of auto insurance.

Auto theft figures throughout the state continue to decline as well. In 2009 there were 11,717 reported instances of vehicle theft, which was a decrease of almost 2,000 vehicles from the 2008 numbers. Since the decade began, auto theft rates in Louisiana are down over forty percent, wiping out the minor increases that were seen in the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina. As Louisiana’s car owners continue to protect their vehicles with anti-theft devices, and law enforcement initiatives become more and more efficient at getting criminals off of the streets, these numbers will drop even further.

We’ve built a tool for those who live in Louisiana to help sort through the available auto insurance companies and policies on the market today. To find the best prices for Louisiana auto insurance, scroll up to the top of this page and enter in your ZIP code. We’ll help you find the best deals possible, anywhere in Louisiana!

Auto Insurance Agents In Louisiana

Louisiana Auto Insurance Agents

Compare over 200 auto insurance companies at once!

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Additional Automobile Insurance Resources In The State Of Louisiana