Suspensive Appeal in Louisiana: Deadline, Bond, and Stay

A suspensive appeal in Louisiana halts enforcement of a trial court judgment while a higher court reviews it, so the winning party cannot collect money or seize property until the appeal is decided. To get that protection, you have 30 days to file the motion for appeal and post security, and both steps must happen inside that window. Miss it, and the appeal doesn’t die, but the stay does.

The 30-Day Deadline

Louisiana gives you exactly 30 days to file a suspensive appeal and furnish the required security. The clock starts running from the expiration of the delay for applying for a new trial, or from the date notice is mailed of the court’s refusal to grant a new trial if one was requested.¹ Both the motion for appeal and the security must be in by then. There is no grace period and no extension for good cause.

Watch every post-trial motion in the case, not just your own. If multiple parties filed motions for a new trial or for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the 30-day period doesn’t begin for anyone until the court rules on the last pending motion.¹ Miscounting the trigger date is one of the more common ways appellants lose the stay.

How Much Security You Have to Post

For a money judgment, the bond must equal the full amount of the judgment plus interest accrued through the date you furnish the security. Court costs are excluded from the calculation.² On a $200,000 judgment with $8,000 in accrued interest, the bond comes to $208,000. Louisiana’s judicial interest rate for 2026 is 7.5% per annum, so on a large judgment the interest component builds fast.

Two categories carry different rules. If the judgment distributes money already held by the court (funds in custodia legis), the security drops to whatever will cover the costs of the appeal itself. For every other judgment, including orders directing someone to do or stop doing something, the trial court sets the bond at an amount it considers sufficient to cover the judgment’s value plus any damages caused by delay from the stay.² Because that figure is up to the judge, bond amounts for non-money judgments are less predictable. You may need to file the motion first, get the security determination, and then arrange the bond within the time you have left.

What the Security Looks Like

Most appellants use a surety bond from a licensed bonding company. The bond must state that the surety guarantees the appellant will prosecute the appeal and that any judgment will be satisfied from the appellant’s property or by the surety itself.² You don’t pay the full face amount out of pocket. You pay an annual premium, typically 1% to 5% of the bond amount depending on your creditworthiness and any collateral you can offer. On a $200,000 bond, that premium runs somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000 a year. Surety companies sometimes require collateral on top of the premium because their exposure grows as post-judgment interest accrues during the appeal.

Beyond the bond itself, expect additional appellate costs. After the appeal order is granted, the trial court clerk estimates the cost of preparing the appellate record, including transcript fees and the appellate filing fee, and mails that estimate to both parties.³ Filing fees vary by circuit, generally in the low hundreds. Transcript charges depend on how long the trial record runs and can dwarf the filing fee in a complex case.

Reducing or Challenging the Bond

Louisiana law builds in a few safety valves for bonds that would otherwise be unworkable. When the judgment exceeds $150 million, the trial court can reduce the bond to whatever protects the judgment creditor while preserving the appellant’s ability to appeal. Going the other direction, for good cause the trial judge can increase a money-judgment bond up to 150% of the judgment amount when a surety bond is used, which cushions the creditor against interest accrual during a long appeal.²

If you believe the trial court set the security unreasonably, you can seek supervisory writs from the appellate court. Louisiana law requires the appellate court to take that challenge on a priority basis, and filing for those writs pauses the 30-day appeal clock until the appellate court rules.²

In forma pauperis status does not automatically exempt an appellant from posting security. Courts have recognized that setting an excessive bond for an indigent appellant is an abuse of discretion, and in some circumstances a court may set a lower nominal bond.

What the Stay Does and Doesn’t Stop

Once the bond is furnished within the 30-day window, the suspensive appeal itself creates the stay. The judgment creditor cannot garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, or force a sheriff’s sale of your property while the appeal is pending in the higher court.

Interest, however, does not stop. Louisiana’s judicial interest rate for 2026 is 7.5% per annum, and while the bond amount includes interest accrued through the date the security is furnished, interest continues to run on the underlying judgment during the appeal.² A two-year appeal on a $300,000 judgment at 7.5% adds roughly $45,000 in interest on top of what you already secured. That ongoing exposure is why bond amounts can be increased up to 150% for good cause and why sureties look hard at collateral.

Missing the Deadline: Conversion to a Devolutive Appeal

Failing to post security within 30 days doesn’t end your appeal. It changes what kind of appeal you have. If you don’t furnish the required security in time, the trial court converts the suspensive appeal into a devolutive appeal.⁴ The single exception is eviction cases, where that conversion does not apply.

A devolutive appeal preserves the appellate court’s review of the merits, but the stay is gone. The judgment creditor can start enforcing right away: garnishing wages, seizing bank accounts, forcing property sales. On its own timeline, a devolutive appeal allows 60 days from the same triggering event that starts the suspensive clock, and no security is required.⁵² The appellate court still hears your case. You’re just fighting it while the other side collects.

Getting Property Back If You Win

If the appellate court eventually reverses the judgment after the winning party has already collected under a devolutive appeal, recovery requires a separate legal step. Courts have inherent authority to order restitution when a judgment is overturned, restoring property and rights lost under the erroneous ruling, and where property cannot be returned in kind, the court can direct a money judgment sufficient to compensate for the loss.

That process against a private judgment creditor who has already spent the money can be slow and uncertain. This is the practical reason the suspensive appeal exists in the form it does. If there is any realistic chance you will appeal a significant judgment, arranging the security inside the 30-day window belongs at the top of the case’s to-do list, ahead of everything else.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2123 – Delay for Taking Suspensive Appeal
2
Justia Law. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2124 – Security to Be Furnished for an Appeal
3
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2126 – Payment of Costs
4
Justia Law. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2088 – Divesting of Jurisdiction of Trial Court
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2087 – Delay for Taking Devolutive Appeal