Louisiana Changed Two Rules That Decide Your Injury Claim

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Louisiana State Police Troop G, which patrols Caddo, Bossier, and the parishes around Shreveport, has worked one deadly crash after another this fall. Troopers investigated a fatal wreck involving an 18-wheeler on Interstate 20 in Bossier Parish in mid-September, a pedestrian killed in neighboring DeSoto Parish in early October, and an August collision with a train in Bossier Parish that left one person dead and two injured. Behind reports like these are families, hospital bills, and insurance claims. And the rules that govern those claims changed twice in the last two years.

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Most drivers have no idea.

Heather C. Ford, a Shreveport personal injury attorney and the founder of Ford Injury Firm, says the two changes catch people off guard at the worst possible time. One gave injury victims more time to act. The other made it easier for an insurance company to pay them nothing.

For decades, Louisiana gave an injured person one year to file a lawsuit, one of the shortest windows in the country. That changed on July 1, 2024. Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 3493.1, the deadline for most injury claims is now two years from the date of the injury.

Ford says the longer window is welcome, but it fools people. "Two years sounds like plenty of time, so folks wait," she said. "Meanwhile, the dashcam footage gets recorded over, the skid marks wash away, and the witness who saw the whole thing moves out of state. The deadline protects your right to file. It does nothing to protect your evidence."

The new deadline also has limits. It applies to injuries that happened on or after July 1, 2024. A crash before that date may still fall under the old one-year rule. Some claims run on their own clock too. A wrongful death claim, for example, still carries a one-year deadline under Louisiana Civil Code Article 2315.2. Ford says that alone is reason to confirm the date with a lawyer rather than guess.

The second change took effect on January 1, 2026, and Ford calls it the one that quietly costs people the most.

Louisiana used to follow a pure comparative fault system. If you were hurt in a crash and found partly to blame, your money was reduced by your share of the fault, but you still recovered something, even when most of the fault was yours. House Bill 431 ended that. Louisiana Civil Code Article 2323 now uses a modified comparative fault rule with a 51 percent bar.

The line is simple and harsh. If you are found 51 percent or more at fault for your own crash, you recover nothing. Not a reduced amount. Nothing. Anyone below 51 percent still recovers, reduced by their percentage.

Ford says the shift hands insurers a new playbook. "Before, blaming you was about shaving the number down," she said. "Now it is about pushing you across the 51 percent line, because on the other side of that line their payout is zero. Expect adjusters to work a lot harder to pin the majority of the blame on the injured person." The rule applies to crashes on or after January 1, 2026, and when fault goes to a jury, jurors are now told what a finding of 51 percent means.

That pressure shows up in almost every kind of wreck. In a car accident at a busy Shreveport intersection, the argument may be over who had the green light. In a truck accident on I-20 or I-49, a commercial carrier's insurer may claim the smaller vehicle cut in or braked suddenly. In a pedestrian accident, the person on foot is often accused of crossing where they should not have. Under the old rule, those arguments trimmed a recovery. Under the new one, they can end it.

Put the two changes together, and the takeaway is not what it first appears. You have more time to file, but a harder road to a full recovery, and the thing that protects you on both fronts is the same. Evidence gathered early. A victim's right to recover still rests on proving the other driver's negligence under Louisiana Civil Code Article 2315, and that proof is built in the first days after a crash, not the last.

Ford's advice for the hours and days after a Shreveport crash is short and specific.

• Call 911 and get a police report, even for a wreck that looks minor.
• See a doctor the same day, even if you feel fine. Some injuries surface later, and a gap in treatment becomes the insurer's argument.
• Photograph everything, including the vehicles, their positions, the intersection, the signals, and your injuries.
• Get names and numbers for every witness before they leave the scene.
• Say nothing recorded to the other driver's insurer until you have spoken with a lawyer.
• Write down what happened while it is fresh, including where you were and what was said.

For serious wrecks that cause catastrophic injuries such as brain or spinal cord damage, Ford says the dispute over fault matters even more, because the amounts at stake give insurers every reason to shift blame.

Her bottom line for anyone hurt on a Shreveport road is the same one she gives at the scene and on the phone. Do not assume the old rules still apply. The deadline is longer than it used to be, the fault rule is stricter than it used to be, and the choices that decide a case are often made in the first week. "Get advice before you talk to an adjuster," she said. "That one call usually costs nothing and changes everything."

About the Law Office of Heather C. Ford

The Law Office of Heather C. Ford is a Shreveport personal injury firm representing people hurt in car, truck, and motorcycle crashes and other serious-injury cases across North Louisiana, including Bossier City, Blanchard, Minden, and Mansfield. The firm's office is at 2545 Midway Ave in Shreveport.

To learn more, visit fordinjuryfirm.com.

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