Louisiana Personal Injury Statute of Limitations: Deadlines and Tolling

The Louisiana personal injury statute of limitations is two years from the date of injury for most claims. Louisiana technically calls this a “prescriptive period,” but the effect is the same as a statute of limitations elsewhere: file after it runs and the court will dismiss the case. The two-year rule took effect on July 1, 2024, when the legislature repealed the old one-year period under Civil Code article 3492 and enacted article 3493.1.¹ Several categories of claims carry different or shorter deadlines, and a few situations can pause the clock. The rest of this article walks through those variations.

Injuries That Happened Before July 1, 2024

The two-year period applies to injuries sustained on or after July 1, 2024. For injuries before that date, the old one-year rule under article 3492 may still control.² If your injury sits anywhere near that transition, treat the deadline as urgent and confirm which version applies to your specific facts.

Property damage to real estate has its own trigger. Under article 3493.2, the two-year clock starts when you learned about the damage or reasonably should have learned about it, not necessarily when it actually occurred.³ That matters for damage that develops slowly, like a foundation crack traced back to a neighbor’s construction work.

Medical Malpractice: One Year, With a Three-Year Ceiling

Medical malpractice is the biggest exception to the two-year rule and the most time-sensitive category of personal injury claim in Louisiana. Under R.S. 9:5628, you have one year from the date of the malpractice, or one year from the date you discovered it, to file. There is also a hard outer limit: no claim can be filed more than three years after the malpractice occurred, no matter when you discovered it.⁴

That three-year cap is “peremptive” rather than prescriptive. A prescriptive deadline can sometimes be suspended or interrupted. A peremptive one generally cannot. If a surgical error goes undetected for four years, the claim is gone even though you could not have known sooner. The statute covers physicians, dentists, chiropractors, psychologists, nurses, hospitals, and nursing homes licensed in Louisiana.⁴

Wrongful Death and Survival Actions

When someone dies from another person’s negligence, two separate claims arise, and both have their own timing rule.

A wrongful death action compensates surviving family members for their own losses, like loss of companionship and financial support. Under Civil Code article 2315.2, the claim must be filed within one year of the date of death or two years from the date the injury was sustained, whichever period is longer.⁵ So if someone is injured in January 2026 and dies in March 2026, the family has until at least March 2027 (one year from death) or January 2028 (two years from injury), whichever is later.

A survival action recovers what the deceased person could have recovered had they lived. Article 2315.1 uses the same one-year-from-death or two-year-from-injury framework, whichever is longer.⁶ Wrongful death and survival actions based on medical malpractice run on a separate one-year-from-death deadline under R.S. 9:5628.⁵

When the Clock Can Pause

Louisiana courts recognize a doctrine called contra non valentem that can suspend the prescriptive period when timely filing was genuinely impossible. Two categories come up most in personal injury cases: when the defendant actively concealed the facts showing their responsibility, and when the cause of action was not reasonably knowable to the injured person despite reasonable diligence.⁷

The classic scenario is a latent injury with no early symptoms. If you were exposed to a toxic substance but had no reasonable way to link a later illness to the exposure, the clock may not start until you learned or should have learned of the connection. Courts look at whether you investigated with reasonable care. Sitting on information you already had will not trigger the doctrine.

Defendant’s Bankruptcy

If the person or company you need to sue files for bankruptcy, an automatic stay halts most litigation against them. Under 11 U.S.C. § 108(c), you have until the later of the original prescriptive deadline or 30 days after the stay is lifted to bring your action.⁸

Military Service

Active-duty military members are covered by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The period of service is excluded from any limitation calculation, and this applies whether the service member is the potential plaintiff or the potential defendant.⁹ An 18-month deployment during your two-year window does not count against you.

Minors and Incapacitated Persons

Louisiana’s rule for children is stricter than most states expect. Under Civil Code article 3468, prescription runs against minors and incapacitated persons unless a specific law says otherwise.¹⁰ The clock does not pause until the child turns 18. A parent or guardian must file within the standard two-year window, and waiting until the child reaches adulthood will result in a time-barred claim.

There is one narrow exception. Article 3493.1 provides that the prescriptive period does not run against minors or interdicts for permanent-disability claims brought under the Louisiana Products Liability Act.¹ Outside that category, the clock runs for a child the same way it runs for an adult.

Rules for people who have been formally interdicted by a court vary by claim type. The medical malpractice statute expressly states that its deadline runs against interdicts.¹¹ Whenever the injured person cannot act for themselves, identifying the right representative and filing promptly is essential.

Maritime and Offshore Injuries

Louisiana’s oil, gas, and shipping industries mean maritime injury claims come up often. These cases run under federal law, not Louisiana’s prescriptive periods, and the deadlines differ.

Jones Act (injured seamen): three years from the date the cause of action arose to file a personal injury or death claim.¹²
Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act: one year from a traumatic injury to file a written claim, or two years from when the worker learns the disease is disability-causing and work-related, for occupational disease claims.¹³
Death on the High Seas Act: three years from the date of death, for deaths that occur beyond three nautical miles from U.S. shores.

Which statute applies depends on where the injury happened, the worker’s role, and the type of vessel or platform. Classifying the claim wrong can mean filing under the wrong law with the wrong deadline.

Claims Against Government Entities

Suing a government defendant adds procedural steps that can shorten your effective filing window.

Federal Government

Personal injury claims against federal agencies and employees acting within the scope of their duties fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act. You must first submit a written administrative claim to the responsible agency within two years of when the claim accrues. If the agency denies the claim, you then have six months from the date of the denial letter to file suit in federal court.¹⁴ Missing either deadline permanently bars the claim.

Louisiana State and Local Government

Claims against Louisiana state agencies, parishes, and municipalities generally follow the two-year prescriptive period. Some government bodies also require a written notice of claim before you can file suit, and those notice requirements can carry their own shorter deadlines. Because the notice step effectively subtracts time from your filing window, treat these cases as urgent from the start.

How the Two Years Are Counted

Louisiana’s computation rules have a few practical details. Under Civil Code article 3454, the day the injury occurs is not counted; the clock starts the following day.¹⁵ An injury on March 15, 2026 gives you a deadline of March 15, 2028.

If that final day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the deadline extends to the next regular business day.¹⁵ Relying on that extension is a bad plan. A miscounted day, an unexpected closure, or an e-filing outage can turn a viable claim into a dead one. The safer approach is to treat the deadline as a hard number and give yourself real breathing room before it arrives.

1
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 3493.1 – Delictual Actions
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 3492 – Delictual Actions
3
LSU Law Center. Louisiana Civil Code Online – Prescription
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:5628
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2315.2 – Wrongful Death Action
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2315.1 – Survival Action
7
Supreme Court of Louisiana. Whitnell v. Silverman
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 108 – Extension of Time
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3936 – Statute of Limitations
10
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 3468 – Incompetents
11
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:5631 – Minors, Interdicts, and Posthumous Children
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 46 USC 30106 – Time Limit on Bringing Maritime Action for Personal Injury or Death
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act Frequently Asked Questions
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
15
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 3454 – Computation of Time