Most people assume they have two or three years to file an injury lawsuit. In Louisiana, that assumption is wrong and missing the deadline has permanent consequences. Louisiana imposes a one-year prescriptive period on most personal injury claims, one of the shortest in the country, and once that window closes, no court will hear the case regardless of how serious the injury or how clear the other party’s fault.
How Louisiana’s Prescriptive Period Works
Louisiana refers to filing deadlines as “prescription” rather than a statute of limitations, reflecting its distinct Civil Code tradition. Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 3492, delictual actions, meaning claims for personal injury caused by another’s fault, prescribe in one year. That one-year clock typically starts running on the date the injury occurred or the date the victim discovered or reasonably should have discovered the injury.
For most accident scenarios, the date of the accident and the date the injury is discoverable are the same. Someone hurt in a car accident on a Tuesday has one year from that Tuesday to file suit in Louisiana court. Not two years. Not three. One.
This is significantly shorter than the two-year deadline in neighboring Texas or the three-year deadline in states like Maryland. Kenner residents who wait to take legal action because they believe they have more time than they do are among the most common avoidable losses in personal injury practice.
When the Clock Might Be Extended
A small number of exceptions can toll or extend the prescriptive period in Louisiana:
- Minor victims: Prescription does not run against a minor, meaning the one-year clock doesn’t begin until the minor turns 18
- The discovery rule: When an injury isn’t immediately apparent, prescription may be tolled until the victim knew or should have known of both the injury and its connection to the defendant’s conduct
- Fraud or concealment: When a defendant actively concealed information that prevented the victim from discovering the claim, prescription may be interrupted
- The continuous tort doctrine: When a defendant’s wrongful conduct continues over time, prescription may not begin until the conduct ceases
These exceptions are narrow and require specific factual circumstances to apply. They aren’t reliable fallbacks for someone who simply waited too long out of uncertainty or hope that the situation would resolve without legal action.
What Interrupts Prescription in Louisiana
Filing a lawsuit in court interrupts prescription, stopping the clock from running. Simply consulting an attorney, sending a demand letter, or opening an insurance claim does not interrupt prescription under Louisiana law. The lawsuit must actually be filed.
A Kenner personal injury lawyer can evaluate when prescription begins running in a specific case and make sure any filing happens well before the deadline rather than at the last moment, when procedural complications could create problems.
Why Acting Quickly Protects More Than Just the Deadline
The prescriptive period is the hard legal deadline, but evidence preservation is equally important in the period immediately after an injury. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Witnesses become harder to locate. Physical evidence at a scene changes. Medical records from the period immediately following the injury are foundational to establishing both the fact of injury and its connection to the accident.
Kiefer & Kiefer has over 40 years of collective experience handling personal injury cases throughout Jefferson Parish and the greater New Orleans area. If you’ve been injured in Kenner, reaching out to a Kenner personal injury lawyer immediately protects both the legal deadline and the evidence that makes a claim worth pursuing.
