Toni McAllister, Executive Director of Louisiana Loggers Association was guest speaker at the July 15 meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Winnfield where she spoke about McManus Timber Co., Inc. and her involvement with the logging industry on a statewide scope.
In 2018, McAllister began advocating for Louisiana loggers amid a commercial insurance crisis. Over seven years, this work led to key industry wins such as weight limit increases and logger relief policies. However, little progress has been made on insurance reform. McAllister points to a cultural climate in the state that promotes “jackpot justice” and excessive big truck claims, harming the working class. She now collaborates with an insurance workforce group pushing for legislative policies that would curb frivolous lawsuits and reduce abuse of the system.
The 2025 auto insurance reforms passed were Housely Presumption (Rep. Melerine); which eliminates the judicially created rule that assumes a relationship between an accident and an injury without evidence of causation. No pay no play $100K cap (Rep. Dewitt); which increases the recovery of uninsured motorist to $100K. Unauthorized Alien recovery (Rep. Firment); which prohibits recovery of certain damages by unauthorized aliens. Medical Transparency (Sen. Reese); Eliminates recovery of phantom damages and ensure plaintiffs are compensated based on the amount actually paid for reasonable and necessary medical care.
The bill McAllister feels is the only one to affect commercial insurance is the Modified Comparative Fault (Rep. Chenevert); which limits damage recovery if the plaintiff is found to be 51% or more at fault. She gave an example of an accident that occurred at the intersection of 167/84E that at no fault to the driver, caused the shut down of an entire logging job.
“Timber is the largest agricultural crop in the state and we are the boots on the ground that moves this product. We have two of the largest mills in the world, right here in Louisiana.”
McAllister also shared her recent trip to Washington D.C. to speak on behalf of Speaker Mike Johnson, sharing her support for the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” McAllister shared about the call that came in inviting her and how she had little time to write her speech, and get the logistics worked out. Thanking her husband, Sheriff Josh McAllister, for coming along on the trip even while going on little to no sleep the previous days.
“It was an absolute honor to just be asked to speak on Speaker Johnson’s behalf.” She shared a story about Speaker Johnson recounting a time when he had a very important vote to make, and how his wife flew to meet him and they fervently prayed for hours for guidance and wisdom from the Lord. “This is our congressman, the Speaker of the House, the third man in charge of the United States, and I can’t think of anyone better to have representing us in the Louisiana’s 4th District.”
