How to Complete and File Louisiana Form 1008: Deadlines, Sections, and Filing

Louisiana Form 1008, the Disputed Workers’ Compensation Claim, is the document you file with the state’s Office of Workers’ Compensation when you and your employer or its insurer cannot agree on benefits. Filing it turns a stalled dispute into a docketed case assigned to a workers’ compensation judge. The form is a downloadable PDF from the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the filing fee is $50, and getting the details right the first time is what keeps your case from stalling for weeks.¹

File Within One Year of Your Accident

You have one year from the date of your workplace accident to file the 1008. Miss it and your right to benefits is permanently barred. If the employer or insurer has been making payments and then stops, the one-year clock runs from the date of the last payment. For supplemental earnings benefits, that reset stretches to three years from the last indemnity payment.²

If the injury didn’t show up right away, the one-year period starts when it manifests, not on the accident date. Even then, the claim must be filed within three years of the accident. That’s the absolute outer limit. Medical benefits follow the same one-year rule, with a three-year reset from the date of the last medical payment.²

A second clock starts once the 1008 is filed: you must request a hearing in good faith within five years or the case is dismissed for want of prosecution.²

When to File a 1008

The workers’ compensation judge has exclusive jurisdiction over disputes under the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Act, including coverage disputes, overpayment demands, and disagreements over medical treatment and attorney fees.³ In practice, a 1008 is what you file when any of the following stalls out:

The employer or insurer denies the claim or disputes that the injury is compensable.
Wage benefits never started, got cut off, or were paid at the wrong rate.
A specific procedure, test, or physician your doctor recommended hasn’t been authorized.
You believe your disability classification is wrong (temporary total, permanent total, supplemental earnings, or permanent partial).
Vocational rehabilitation services haven’t been offered when they should have been.
You’re seeking penalties and attorney fees against an insurer that unreasonably failed to pay.

Section 9 of the form itself lists over twenty specific dispute categories, from death benefits and fraud to insurance compliance. If the insurer has refused, reduced, or ignored something your doctor recommended or the law requires, you almost certainly have a disputable issue.

Information to Gather Before You Start

Hunting for details mid-form is where mistakes happen. Pull the following together first:

Your full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, phone, and email.
Employer’s company name, address, and registered agent if it’s a corporation or LLC.
The workers’ compensation carrier’s name, registered agent, and address. Coverage can be verified at laworks.net.⁴
The claim number the insurer assigned and the name of the adjuster handling your case.
The exact date of injury, the parish where it happened, the parish where you live, the supervisor you reported it to, and the date and time you reported it.
Names and addresses of every physician, hospital, and provider who has treated the injury.
Your average weekly wage at the time of the accident. For hourly workers employed 40 or more hours per week, that’s your hourly rate times the average actual hours worked in the four full weeks before the accident, or 40 hours, whichever is greater. Salaried workers divide annual salary by 52.⁵

The maximum weekly compensation rate for injuries occurring between September 1, 2025, and August 31, 2026, is $877.⁶ Your indemnity benefits are calculated as a percentage of your average weekly wage subject to that ceiling.

Completing the Form Section by Section

The form has ten numbered sections and must be printed on letter-sized paper.⁴ Leave the district and docket number fields blank at the top. The district office fills those in when you file.

Sections 1 Through 6: The Parties

These identify everyone involved: the injured employee (Section 1), the employer (Section 2), the insurer or self-insurance fund (Section 3), and then the third-party administrator, healthcare provider, and any dependents or other parties in Sections 4 through 6. Each section has a “Service” field where you check Y or N to indicate whether the Office of Workers’ Compensation should serve that party by certified mail.⁴ For a different service method, attach written instructions.

Fill in attorney contact information under each represented party. Filing without a lawyer? Leave those lines blank in your own section.

Section 7: Accident and Injury Data

This section captures the core facts. Enter your occupation, average weekly wage, the date of the accident (or the date occupational disease symptoms first appeared), and the parish where the accident occurred. Describe the affected body parts and give a narrative of how the injury happened. Additional pages are allowed if the space is too tight.⁴ List any witnesses and their addresses.

Be specific in the accident description. “Hurt my back lifting boxes” invites a fight over what actually happened. “Felt a pop in my lower back while lifting a 60-pound box onto a conveyor belt on the warehouse floor” gives the judge something concrete.

Section 8: Medical Treatment

List every physician, hospital, and healthcare provider who has treated the injury, with addresses. Include providers you saw at your own expense, not just the ones the insurer approved.

Section 9: The Bona Fide Dispute

This is the heart of the form. Write a brief narrative of the disputed issues, then check every applicable item from a list labeled (a) through (t):⁴

Items (a) through (d) cover wage benefit problems: no payment, improper termination or reduction, or an incorrect compensation rate.
Items (e) through (h) cover medical benefits: no treatment authorized, incorrect or late medical payments, or denial of a specific procedure.
Item (i) is an appeal of a medical director’s decision on a Form 1009 dispute. This one cannot be joined with any other issues, so a separate 1008 is required for additional claims.
Items (j) and (k) cover choice of treating physician and vocational rehabilitation disputes.
Item (l) is incorrect disability classification. Check the status you believe is correct: temporary total, permanent total, supplemental earnings benefits, or permanent partial.
Items (m) through (t) cover death benefits, offsets, credits, insurance compliance, penalties, attorney fees, interest, costs, and fraud.

Check every item that applies. People often mark only one when three or four are relevant, which means the judge may never address issues they intended to raise. If wage benefits are unpaid and a recommended surgery has been refused, check both (a) and (h).

Section 10 and the Certification

For an expedited hearing, attach a separate motion explaining the legal and factual basis, along with a proposed order for the judge to sign. Expedited hearings require genuine urgency, not just frustration with the process.

At the bottom, sign the certification confirming the information is correct and that you’ve provided a copy to all known parties by U.S. mail.⁴ A separate petition with additional information can be attached if the form’s space isn’t enough.

Where to File

File Form 1008 with the Office of Workers’ Compensation district office that has proper venue under La. R.S. 23:1310.4.⁴ Louisiana has ten district offices, each covering specific parishes:⁷

District 1W (Lafayette): Acadia, Evangeline, Lafayette, St. Landry, Vermilion
District 1E (Lake Charles): Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Vernon
District 2 (Alexandria): Avoyelles, Grant, Natchitoches, Rapides, Sabine, LaSalle
District 3 (Monroe): Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Franklin, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, Tensas, Union, West Carroll, Winn
District 4 (Shreveport): Bossier, Bienville, Caddo, DeSoto, Red River, Webster, Claiborne
District 5 (New Orleans): Orleans
District 6 (Houma): Iberia, Lafourche, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Assumption, St. James
District 7 (Harahan): Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Charles, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist
District 8 (Covington): Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington
District 9 (Baton Rouge): East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, West Feliciana, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Ascension

Filing in the wrong district won’t kill your claim, but it will cause a transfer that adds delay. Match the parish where your accident occurred to the list. Contact information for each district office is on laworks.net.⁸

How to Submit and Pay the Fee

Form 1008 can be filed by hand delivery, U.S. mail, commercial courier, fax, or through the designated electronic filing system. It may also be sent to the assistant secretary’s office at the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration.⁹

The $50 filing fee is due at submission. If you can’t afford it, file a request for waiver of advance costs (in forma pauperis) fully disclosing your financial situation. A workers’ compensation judge reviews the request. If granted, nothing is owed upfront and costs don’t accrue during the case. If denied, all costs must be prepaid before any documents will be accepted.¹

Once filed, the district office serves copies on the parties you marked “Y” by certified mail to the addresses you listed.⁴ Wrong addresses mean failed service and stalled proceedings, so double-check the employer’s and insurer’s addresses before you send anything.

You do not need an attorney to file Form 1008. The form is designed for self-represented claimants. Cases involving denied claims, disputed medical treatment, or significant wage disagreements often benefit from representation, and attorney fees in Louisiana workers’ compensation cases cannot exceed 20% of the amount recovered and must be approved by the judge.¹⁰

What Happens After You File

Mediation is not automatic. It happens when both parties jointly request it or when the presiding judge orders it. Parties can use a state mediator at the district office or agree on a private mediator. Each side must send a representative with authority to negotiate. If a party fails to appear after proper notice, the judge can impose a fine of up to $500 plus costs and attorney fees. Both sides must notify the court of the results within five days after the conference.³

If mediation doesn’t resolve things (or doesn’t happen), the case moves toward trial. After 120 days following receipt of responsive pleadings, a scheduling conference is held by telephone, and the judge sets deadlines for amending pleadings, completing discovery, filing pretrial motions, and setting trial.¹¹ Parties can jointly request an earlier conference if the case needs to move faster.

Discovery works much like civil litigation. The judge can order production of documents and compel witnesses, and subpoenas are available to both sides. Before trial, each party files a pretrial statement listing stipulations, issues to be litigated, all exhibits, and every witness, with a brief description of testimony and whether it will be live or by deposition.¹² Witnesses not listed generally cannot testify absent good cause. At trial, the judge hears medical records, testimony, and argument, then rules on the disputed benefits.

Penalties the Insurer May Owe

If the insurer failed to pay or authorize benefits without a reasonable basis, the judge can award penalties on top of the benefits themselves. The penalty is the greater of 12% of the unpaid compensation or medical benefits, or $50 per calendar day that benefits remain unpaid, with the daily penalty capped at $2,000 total per claim. The maximum a judge can impose at a hearing on the merits is $8,000 regardless of how many penalty violations are alleged.¹³ Reasonable attorney fees are awarded alongside each disputed penalty claim.

The penalty doesn’t apply when the claim is “reasonably controverted,” meaning the insurer had a legitimate factual or legal basis for not paying. If the insurer simply ignored the claim or stopped payments without justification, penalties add real weight to your case. Checking items (q), (r), and (s) in Section 9 puts penalty, interest, and cost claims squarely before the judge.

A separate, steeper penalty applies after a final judgment. If the insurer doesn’t pay an award within 30 days of it becoming final and nonappealable, the penalty jumps to 24% of the award or $100 per day (capped at $3,000 in daily penalties), whichever is greater, plus attorney fees.¹³

1
Cornell Law Institute. Louisiana Administrative Code tit. 40, I-6605 – Fees
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code 23:1209 – Prescription
3
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code 23:1310.3 – Initiation of Claims; Voluntary Mediation; Procedure
4
Louisiana Workforce Commission. Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Form 1008
5
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Tit. 23, 1021
6
Louisiana Workforce Commission. Average Wage Minimum and Maximum Rates
7
Louisiana Workforce Commission. OWC District Boundaries
8
Louisiana Workforce Commission. Workers’ Compensation District Office Listing
9
Louisiana Workforce Commission. OWC Hearing Rules – Section 5507
10
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Tit. 23, 1141
11
Louisiana Workforce Commission. OWC Hearing Rules – Section 6001
12
Louisiana Workforce Commission. OWC Hearing Rules – Section 6007
13
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Tit. 23, 1201