NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – With property insurance costs in Louisiana spiraling out of control, seniors are increasingly turning to reverse mortgages for financial relief.

Alison Calamaia at America’s Mortgage Resource says she’s been getting more calls from homeowners asking about reverse mortgages.

“A lot of my calls start with clients asking about whether or not they should get a reverse mortgage,” said Calamia. “My next question is why are you calling? What has occurred that made you make this phone call? Currently, they say my insurance just went through the roof.”

A majority of Calamia’s clients are in their golden years and on fixed incomes. She says the soaring cost of homeowners insurance creates a financial burden many of them can’t afford because they never anticipated the price of insurance premiums to climb so high.

“I currently have a woman right now, her insurance went from $3,000 to $14,000. She can’t afford to pay that any longer,” she said. “She does have a mortgage on her property, and she might lose her house if she can’t make that mortgage payment.”

Even those without mortgages, like Cheron Brylski of Uptown New Orleans, are feeling the pressure. Brylski put her home up for sale earlier this summer, citing property insurance and taxes as key reasons for her decision.

“It’s basically making living in a house that I own, and I own outright, impossible for me to stay here,” Brylski told us in June.

Calamia said the fear of losing one’s “forever” home is becoming more common among her clients.

“Most of the time it’s the house where they raised their children. And we live in the South. We don’t want to leave that house. We want to stay put,” she explained.

INSURANCE CRISIS

To stay put, Calamia says a growing number of people are considering reverse mortgages to create another line of money. Details of mortgages and reverse mortgages can be confusing and often filled with financial language unfamiliar to many people. That can often lead to several myths about reverse mortgages said Calamia, who tried to boil down the information for this reporter to understand.

“In a nutshell, it is a mortgage against the home that allows for a percentage of the property value to be used as a stream of monthly income, a line of credit, or a lump sum to pay existing mortgages, but it does not come with a monthly payback as long as the borrower lives in the home. They do have to pay taxes and insurance, but there’s not that principal and interest part of it. In essence, the house is going to pay for the principal that they would receive and the interest on it over time instead of physically making a traditional mortgage payment, the house is paying for it,” said Calamia.

The borrower can use the line of cash or credit generated through a reverse mortgage to pay for things like property insurance. Calamia says reverse mortgages often get a bad reputation. Much of her work involves walking clients through a process to determine if a reverse mortgage would be appropriate for their financial situation.

“One of the biggest reasons myths about reverse mortgages is I can’t get a reverse mortgage if I still owe money on my home. That’s not true. However, in a reverse mortgage the available funds, which is a percentage of the property value, there needs to be enough in the reverse mortgage to pay off that mortgage plus cover the closing costs. We don’t have any out-of-pocket cost so the cost of getting the loan is worked into the loan. People also think they won’t keep the title to their home. They do keep that title as long as they just live in it. And one day, when the mortgage is due and payable, which is usually after the borrower has sold the property or has permanently moved out of the home. When the loan becomes due and payable, any amount that was given to the borrower is paid back along with interest on it over time. There’s no end date. The date is when they no longer live there usually after death,” Calamia said.

Reverse mortgages may not be suitable for everyone. But during a time when many people are trying to find ways to cover the cost of sky-high property insurance, Calamia believes it can help seniors stay in their forever homes.

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NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court expressed extreme displeasure with Sen. Alan Seabaugh for leveraging his role as a state lawmaker to prolong an automobile accident lawsuit for years. 

But the justices didn’t appear convinced the law allowing legislators who are attorneys, like Seabaugh, to delay court proceedings should be declared unconstitutional. 

The seven-person court heard oral arguments Thursday over whether Seabaugh and Rep. Michael Melerine, partners in a Shreveport law firm, violated the rights of Caddo Parish resident Theresa Fisher. 

Fisher is suing for money to cover her medical expenses after an automobile accident in 2018. 

Seabaugh and Melerine represent the driver who hit Fisher, Steven Harder Jr., his father Steven Harder Sr. and the father’s insurance company, Hanover Insurance Group.

Fisher’s attorneys have alleged Seabaugh and, more recently, Melerine unreasonably delayed resolution of the lawsuit, first filed in 2019, by demanding numerous extensions related to their legislative work. After five years, the case is finally expected to go to trial next month. 

Seabaugh has served in the Legislature since 2011, including 12 years in the Louisiana House of Representatives. Melerine took his seat in the House in January.

Under law, state judges must postpone deadlines and court appearances for attorneys who are lawmakers if the proceedings will interfere with their legislative work. 

The question before the Louisiana Supreme Court is whether those automatic extensions represent an unchecked power for lawmakers. 

Legislators who are attorneys contend it would be difficult for them to continue to serve in public office if they had to worry about their law practice and clients while in their lawmaking sessions. Twenty-nine other legislators, Democrats and Republicans who are mostly attorneys, signed a brief to the Supreme Court backing Seabaugh and Melerine in the case.  

“[Fisher and her lawyers] want to throw the baby out with the bath water,” said Larry Frieman, a former lawmaker and the state’s chief deputy attorney general, who defended the law in court Thursday. 

‘Disappointing’ delay

The justices made it clear they were unhappy with Seabaugh and, to a lesser extent, Melerine’s conduct in the Fisher case.

Justice Jay McCallum referred to it as “disappointing” and “repugnant.” Jeannette Theriot Knoll, a former justice who has been temporarily appointed to fill the seat vacated by James Genovese, called it “egregious” and “unconscionable.” 

“I don’t think you’ll find anyone that likes what’s going on here,” McCallum said. 

Justice William Crain was aghast that Seabaugh had allegedly agreed to a trial court date in May 2023, a month that is the height of the regular legislative session every year. Seabaugh later backed out and asked for a legislative extension, according to Fisher’s attorneys. 

“He should never agree to a trial date during the session unless he intends to show up,” Crain told Frieman.

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The justices also appeared frustrated that Seabaugh, while in the middle of this legal dispute, authored legislation that would have saddled Fisher and her attorneys with extra legal expenses for challenging him. 

Senate Bill 185 ​​would have required attorneys who fight legislative continuances to pay the court costs and legal expenses for opposing state lawmakers. It also would have prohibited lawmakers from using the extensions for cases involving protective orders, stalking, domestic violence and sexual assault.

Lawmakers passed the legislation unanimously, but the measure didn’t become law. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry vetoed the proposal over concerns that it would give lawmakers too much authority over legal extensions.

Justice Piper Griffin, a Democrat from New Orleans, agreed with Landry’s sentiment Thursday. 

“Every single legislative session, there’s an attempt to make [the legislative continuance law] more draconian,” Griffin said, later adding: “It’s causing problems.”

When it comes to the Fisher lawsuit, the delays have caused so much frustration that even one of Seabaugh and Melerine’s clients in lawsuit, Steven Harder Sr., sided with Fisher’s attorneys. He is also asking the justices to limit or throw out the legislative continuance law. 

Vernon Richie, a new attorney for Steven Harder Sr., said the lack of resolution to the lawsuit causes stress for his client’s family. They aren’t sure how much they will have to pay Fisher if she wins the case, and the uncertainty has put them in financial limbo for years.

“They need closure,” Richie told the justices. 

Frieman, who worked closely with Seabaugh as a legislator, also tried to distance himself from his former colleague while defending statute.

“I really don’t want to talk about whether Sen. Seabaugh was right or wrong. I’m not here to defend him,” Frieman said at the hearing.

In an unusual move, Seabaugh and Melerine did not appear in person Thursday or file a brief for the justices to review ahead of time. Instead, they asked in early August to be removed from the case altogether. 

Their pending withdrawal appeared to strengthen Frieman’s  push to keep the law in place. He said the justices no longer had to rule on legislative continuances because the lawmakers would not be involved in the lawsuit moving forward. 

In a legal brief, Fisher’s lawyers described Seabaugh’s and Melerine’s decision to drop out as cynical and a “blatant attempt to sidestep this court’s review of the statute.”

Law limitations 

Attorneys J. Cole Sartin and Joseph Gregorio, who also represent Fisher, argued the current legislative extension law is an overreach of the Legislature into judicial matters. It prohibits judges from being able to manage their docket and move trials along, Sartin said. 

They did not suggest doing away with legislative continuances completely but want to see more guardrails in place. The law should be more specific about when a lawmaker who is an attorney can request a postponement, and opposing counsel should also be able to challenge continuations, Sartin said. 

The statute is written broadly. Lawmaker attorneys can seek an extension from the court for any time 30 days before until 30 days after a legislative session, as well as for travel and other meetings they attend as an elected official.

One justice who served as a state lawmaker, McCallum, questioned whether the law, while sometimes abused, reached the level of being unconstitutional. 

The Legislature passes other statutes that tie the hands of judges, McCallum said. For example, lawmakers have imposed mandatory life sentences in prison with no option of parole for people convicted of murder. Judges aren’t given discretion to change those punishments, he said. 

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Nevertheless, McCallum said there may also be “remedies” to limit misuse. He suggested it might clear problems up if extension requests were sent to the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, which could then monitor whether the benefit was being abused.

Limiting the number of legislative continuances that can be granted per case would be another option, Knoll said.

Wider problem

Seabaugh and Melerine aren’t the only lawmakers who have been accused of abusing this privilege.

In a legal brief supporting Fisher’s arguments, attorney Jennifer Prescott alleged she handled a civil lawsuit that took too long to resolve because the opposing attorney,  Rep. Kyle Green, used 10 legislative continuances to delay proceedings over two and half years.

Democratic Rep. Edmond Jordan angered a judge last year and lost a case when he filed legislative continuances and did not appear in court.  

Perhaps most seriously, Barron Bailey of Webster Parish said he has been stuck in jail for the past five years without a trial in part because his attorney, Democratic Sen. Katrina Jackson, has used legislative extensions. 

“I’ve been represented by Ms. Jackson since December 2019. I feel that she has only filed one motion in my case,” Bailey told KTBS-TV last month. “They say no news is good news, but she is not representing me to the best of her ability. She works mainly through paralegals and a private investigator.” 

Bailey faces second-degree murder and first-degree feticide charges in the 2019 death of Na’Toyedre Barrow, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. Bailey says he is innocent. 

Prosecutor Hugo Holland, who works for district attorneys across the state, also blamed Jackson’s legislative extensions for the Baily’s trial delay.

“I cannot get it to trial because the defense attorney is constantly using the legislative continuance statute,” he told the television station. 

Jackson did not respond to an interview request from KTBS-TV.

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Keep Louisiana Beautiful has partnered with several car dealerships in Louisiana that are ‘Putting the Brakes on Litter,’ which is a campaign that will help spread awareness of the litter crisis in the state.

“Approximately 143 million pieces of litter along our roadways,” said Susan Russell, executive director of Keep Louisiana Beautiful.

Russell said that’s a huge problem in the state and trash on the roadways have cost the state over $91 million.

“That we have a huge litter problem in Louisiana and that 79% comes cause from motorists and trucks, as well as garbage trucks,” Russell said.

“And clearly, that’s money that can be spent in other ways, like in education and on roadways. So, work with us, do your part,” Russell said.

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Partners, like Acura of Baton Rouge, is doing its part by bringing awareness to the issue.

“The ideas that we’re going to spread information to our customers to keep our city more clean and our roadways clear,” said Felicia Nealy, marketing director, Acura of Baton Rouge.

Across Louisiana, 36 dealerships are now involved in the campaign. Customers looking to purchase a new ride at a participating dealership will get a free litter prevention kit. The kit includes a car litter bag, portable ashtray, informational rack card, bumper sticker, car coaster and a litter hotline number.

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