How Long Do You Have to File an Injury Claim in Louisiana?

By Donald J. Melancon, Attorney at Law

Louisiana has historically been one of the least forgiving states in the country on this question. The deadline to bring an injury claim here has always been shorter than in most states, and missing it ends the claim regardless of how strong it is. The rule also changed recently, which means the answer now depends on when the injury happened.

Prescription, not the statute of limitations

Louisiana calls this deadline prescription. The label is a civil-law artifact, but it has practical consequences: prescription is generally raised as an exception by the defendant, and it can be interrupted or suspended in circumstances that differ from how other states handle a statute of limitations. If you are reading general national advice about injury deadlines, it does not describe Louisiana.

The date of the injury controls which rule applies

For a long time, Louisiana gave injured people one year from the date of the injury to file suit — a notoriously short window. Louisiana law was amended to extend that period to two years for delictual actions, with the change applying prospectively to injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024.

That prospective application is the whole trap. An accident on June 2024 and an accident in August 2024 are governed by different deadlines. Nobody should assume the two-year period applies to an older claim, and nobody should assume the one-year period still governs a newer one. If your accident falls anywhere near that boundary, confirm the applicable period against the actual date before relying on it — and if the date is close, treat the shorter period as the operating deadline.

Some claims have much shorter deadlines

The general rule is not the only rule, and several categories carry their own timing requirements that can arrive far sooner:

• Claims against a governmental body — a city, a parish, a state agency, a public hospital, a school board — commonly carry notice requirements and procedural prerequisites of their own. A claim against a public entity should be treated as urgent from day one.
• Medical malpractice runs through a separate statutory process, including review by a medical review panel before suit, with its own timing rules.
• Workplace injuries fall under workers’ compensation, which has its own reporting and filing deadlines that are separate from any injury lawsuit.
• Maritime and offshore claims — a real category in south Louisiana — may be governed by federal law with entirely different periods.

Insurance deadlines are a separate clock

People conflate these constantly. Your obligations to your own insurer — prompt notice of the accident, cooperation, an examination under oath, deadlines built into an uninsured or underinsured motorist policy — come from the policy contract, not from prescription. You can comply perfectly with the filing deadline and still damage your own claim by failing a policy requirement months earlier. Read the notice provisions of your own policy early.

Why waiting hurts even inside the deadline

The filing deadline is the outer limit, not the target. Evidence decays quickly and on its own schedule. Surveillance and doorbell video is routinely overwritten within days or weeks. Vehicles get repaired or salvaged. Skid marks and roadway conditions disappear. Witnesses move and stop answering the phone. A claim brought promptly is not just safer procedurally — it is usually built on far better evidence.

There is also a treatment dimension. Gaps between the accident and the first medical visit, and gaps in treatment afterward, are the first thing an adjuster points to. Getting evaluated promptly and following the treatment plan matters to both your health and the claim.

The short version

Find the date of the accident, then find out which deadline governs it — and do it now rather than close to the anniversary. Prescription is unforgiving, the rule changed mid-2024, and the special categories above can cut the time far shorter than the general rule suggests.

For purposes of compliance with the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct, the attorney responsible for this content is Donald J. Melancon (105 Field Street, Belle Chasse, Louisiana 70037).