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The two-year deadline: La. C.C. art. 3493.1

Bonita Y. Wilson, Esq. · Published October 28, 2026

Louisiana calls its filing deadline “prescription.” Miss it and the court dismisses the claim no matter how strong it was. For most injuries since July 1, 2024, the deadline is two years. Here is how the clock works and what can change it.

What changed in 2024

For decades, Louisiana gave an injured person one year to file a lawsuit for a tort, which is the legal word for a wrong such as a negligent driver or an unsafe floor. That rule lived in Civil Code article 3492. In 2024 the Legislature passed Act 423, which repealed article 3492 and enacted article 3493.1. The new article says that delictual actions, meaning tort claims, are subject to a liberative prescription of two years, and that the period begins to run from the day the injury or damage is sustained.

Act 423 took effect on July 1, 2024, and applies prospectively, which means it governs claims that arose on or after that date. An injury that happened before July 1, 2024 stayed under the old one-year rule. For practical purposes, nearly every one of those older claims has now either been filed or has expired.

When the clock starts

Prescription starts on the day the injury or damage is sustained. In a car crash, that is the day of the crash. The clock does not wait for you to finish treatment, for the adjuster to answer, or for you to learn how serious the injury turned out to be. A claim can be filed while treatment is still ongoing; the lawsuit protects the deadline, and the damages are proved later.

The exceptions that change the clock

Death changes the rule. When an injury leads to death, the family's wrongful death claim under Civil Code article 2315.2 prescribes one year from the death or two years from the day the injury was sustained, whichever is longer, under amendments passed in 2025. Those claims belong to specific relatives named in the article, and the survival claim for what the person suffered before death has its own article. Both deserve immediate attention.

Minors do not automatically get more time. Civil Code article 3468 provides that prescription runs against minors and interdicts unless legislation says otherwise. Article 3493.1 carves out one narrow exception, for permanent-disability claims brought under the Louisiana Products Liability Act, and nothing broader. A parent who assumes a child's claim can wait until the child turns eighteen is usually wrong.

Claims against the State, a parish, a city, a sheriff's office or a public hospital carry their own procedures and, in some cases, shorter notice periods. If a government vehicle, a public building or a public road was involved, the two-year number is not the only date that matters.

Why a lawyer should see the file early

Two years sounds like a long time. It is not. Police item numbers get purged, store surveillance is overwritten in weeks, witnesses move and vehicles are repaired or scrapped. Prescription is the last day to file, not the day to start. The earlier the evidence is preserved, the stronger the case is on whatever day it is filed.

This article is general information about Louisiana law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines depend on facts. If you were hurt, have the dates reviewed now.

The 51% rule: La. C.C. art. 2323 after January 1, 2026

Bonita Y. Wilson, Esq. · Published October 28, 2026

Louisiana used to reduce an injured person's recovery by their share of the blame, whatever that share was. As of January 1, 2026, a person found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing. The percentage is now the whole case.

How fault is divided

Civil Code article 2323 requires the court to determine the percentage of fault of every person who caused or contributed to the injury, whether or not that person is a party to the lawsuit, whether or not they can pay, and even if their identity is unknown. The jury or judge assigns each person a number, and the numbers add to one hundred.

What Act 15 of 2025 changed

Before 2026, Louisiana followed pure comparative fault. If you were 60 percent at fault for a crash, you still recovered 40 percent of your damages. Act 15 of the 2025 Regular Session amended article 2323 and replaced that rule with a modified system. Under the amended article, if the injured person's negligence is equal to or greater than fifty-one percent, that person cannot recover damages. If it is less than fifty-one percent, the damages are reduced in proportion to the person's share of fault.

The arithmetic is simple. A person found 30 percent at fault with $100,000 in damages recovers $70,000. A person found 50 percent at fault recovers $50,000. A person found 51 percent at fault recovers nothing. One percentage point separates half a recovery from no recovery.

The amendment took effect on January 1, 2026. Whether a crash that happened before that date is judged under the old rule or the new one is a question of how the act applies to earlier claims, and it deserves a careful answer for each case rather than an assumption.

The exception that still protects you

Paragraph C of article 2323 is unchanged in substance: when an injured person's negligence combines with the fault of someone who acted intentionally, the injured person's recovery is not reduced. A drunk driver who swerves into you is still negligent, not intentional, so the exception is narrower than people hope. It matters most in assault cases and in some premises cases.

Why the first week decides the percentage

Insurance adjusters understand the 51 percent line better than most injured people do. Under the amended article a jury must be instructed on the effect of its fault allocation, so the defense has every reason to push your number up. The recorded statement they ask for in the first few days, the photographs that were never taken, the witness who was never called, the dash camera footage that was overwritten: each one moves the percentage. The crash scene and the physical evidence are the only things that argue your number down, and they disappear fast. In a modified comparative fault system, evidence preservation is not paperwork. It is the case.

This article is general information about Louisiana law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fault allocation depends on the evidence in each case.

No Pay, No Play: La. R.S. 32:866

Bonita Y. Wilson, Esq. · Published October 28, 2026

If you were driving without the liability insurance Louisiana requires, the law takes the first $100,000 of your injury claim away from you, even when the other driver caused the crash. That number used to be $15,000. Here is what the statute says, who it reaches, and who it does not.

The rule

Revised Statute 32:866 provides that a person who fails to own or maintain compulsory motor vehicle liability security cannot recover the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages or the first $100,000 of property damage from an accident involving that vehicle. Act 16 of the 2025 Regular Session raised those figures from $15,000 for bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage, effective August 1, 2025. The statute does not bar the claim entirely; it removes the first $100,000 of each kind of damage. A claim worth $140,000 in bodily injury becomes a claim worth $40,000. Most claims are worth less than the threshold, which is why the rule is called No Pay, No Play.

Two other parts of the statute bite. Under subsection C, an uninsured owner or operator who sues and is awarded $100,000 or less for bodily injury must pay all parties' court costs. Under subsection B, the other driver's insurer may raise the statute as an affirmative defense, which means it will.

Who the rule does not reach

Passengers. Subsection E preserves the right of a passenger to sue for damages caused by another person's negligence, unless the passenger owns the uninsured vehicle. If you were riding in a friend's uninsured car, your claim is not reduced.

Victims of certain drivers. Under subsection A(3)(a), the limitation does not apply if the driver of the other vehicle is cited for an offense under R.S. 14:98, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, and is convicted or pleads nolo contendere; intentionally causes the accident; flees the scene; or is furthering a felony at the time of the accident.

Parked and stationary vehicles. Under subsection H the statute does not apply to a vehicle that was legally parked at the time of the accident, and under subsection A(3)(b) the limitation does not apply when the other vehicle was not being operated and was not in violation of the traffic laws.

Buying insurance after the crash does not fix it

Subsection G closes the door people most often try. Purchasing or changing coverage after the accident, when no coverage was bound before it, does not restore the recovery, defeat the affirmative defense or avoid the court costs. Only a policy that was already in force, or a reinstatement that falls within the policy's own grace period, counts.

What to do if this is you

Do not assume the claim is worthless. Serious injuries exceed the threshold, the exceptions are real, and whether your coverage had actually lapsed on the day of the crash is a factual question that insurers sometimes get wrong. Bring the policy, the cancellation notice if there was one, and the crash report, and have the dates checked before anyone tells you what your claim is worth.

This article is general information about Louisiana law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether the statute applies depends on your coverage on the day of the crash.

The new medical bill rule: La. R.S. 9:2800.27

Bonita Y. Wilson, Esq. · Published October 28, 2026

Effective January 1, 2026, Louisiana changed how past medical expenses are calculated in an injury case. The number that matters is now what was actually paid for your care, not what the hospital billed, and the jury is told both. Here is what the statute says and what it means for the value of a claim.

What changed on January 1, 2026

Revised Statute 9:2800.27 governs which past medical expenses an injured person can recover from the party who caused the injury. Under the version in force from 2021 through 2025, a plaintiff whose bills were paid by health insurance or Medicare recovered the amount paid plus forty percent of the difference between the billed amount and the paid amount, and the jury was told only the billed amount. Act 466 of the 2025 Regular Session rewrote the statute. The forty percent addition is gone, and the jury now hears both figures. The amendment applies prospectively to causes of action filed on or after January 1, 2026.

The rule, provider by provider

If a health insurance issuer or Medicare paid a contracted provider, recovery is limited to the amount actually paid plus any cost sharing the claimant paid or still owes, such as deductibles, copayments and coinsurance. The same rule applies when Medicaid paid. If the treatment was paid under workers' compensation, recovery is limited to the amount paid under the workers' compensation fee schedule. In a trial involving insurance or Medicare payments, the trier of fact is informed of both the amount billed and the amount paid.

For expenses that no insurer paid, the recoverable amount is what was paid by or on behalf of the claimant plus what is still owed to the provider, including balances secured by a lien, privilege or guarantee. One new provision reaches into the lawyer's own arrangements: if the claimant's attorney has a pre-negotiated agreement with a provider to accept less than the billed amount as payment in full, recovery is limited to the amount paid under that agreement plus applicable cost sharing.

The statute does not apply to medical malpractice claims under the Medical Malpractice Act, and it does not reach benefits paid under the medical payments coverage of an automobile policy.

What it means for an injured person

Three things. First, a claim's medical component will be smaller on paper than it was under the old rule, because the forty percent cushion that once covered the cost of carrying health insurance is no longer part of the calculation. Second, having health insurance still matters: cost sharing is recoverable, and an uninsured claimant's unpaid bills are measured by what is actually owed, which the defense will scrutinize. Third, the records now decide the number. Explanations of benefits, provider ledgers and lien statements prove what was paid and what is owed, and a claim without them has no way to establish its medical damages.

The date that controls

Act 466 applies to causes of action filed on or after January 1, 2026. A suit filed before that date is governed by the earlier version of the statute. For an injury that happened in 2025, the timing of filing determines which rule applies, and that is a decision to make with counsel, not by default.

This article is general information about Louisiana law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Which version of the statute governs depends on when the suit was filed.