Louisiana Casualty Study Guide

Louisiana is the only civil-law state in the country, and on the casualty side that is not a piece of trivia — it is load-bearing. The Civil Code allocates fault, not common law. The statutes speak of offenses and quasi-offenses where a common-law state says torts. Deadlines are prescription, not statutes of limitation. And Louisiana’s signature liability rule, the Direct Action Statute, has no real analogue anywhere else in the United States. A national study guide will leave you unprepared for this exam.

Auto — a tort state with the lowest limits around

Louisiana is fault-based. There is no no-fault system and no mandatory personal injury protection; medical payments coverage exists and is optional. Fault is allocated under La. Civ. Code art. 2323.

The financial responsibility minimums under R.S. 32:900(B)(2) are 15/30/25 — $15,000 bodily injury per person, $30,000 per occurrence, $25,000 property damage.

Fifteen and thirty are among the lowest compulsory limits in the country, and worth memorising because they are low: a candidate half-remembering the common 25/50/25 will overshoot the two bodily-injury figures while getting property damage right by accident.

Uninsured motorist — provided, not offered, and on the Commissioner’s form

R.S. 22:1295(1) requires uninsured motorist coverage to be PROVIDED at limits equal to the bodily injury liability limits — unless the named insured rejects it in writing on a form prescribed by the Commissioner. Underinsured motorist rides alongside on the same terms.

Two features distinguish this from the “must be offered” rule most states use.

First, it is an opt-out, not an opt-in. The coverage is in the policy by operation of law and leaves only by rejection. On a policy where nobody discussed UM at all, an offer state produces a policy without it; Louisiana produces a policy with it.

Second — and this is the Louisiana refinement — the rejection must be on the Commissioner’s prescribed form. Not a letter, not a note in the file, not a signature on the application. A rejection on the wrong paper is not a rejection, and Louisiana courts have made that expensive for insurers.

Comparative fault — a rule that changed in 2026

For decades Louisiana was a pure comparative fault state: a claimant 90% at fault still recovered 10%, with no bar at all. If your study material predates 2026, that is what it will teach you.

As of 1 January 2026, under Acts 2025 No. 15, Louisiana applies a 51% bar. A claimant who is 51% or more at fault recovers nothing.

This is the most recently moved piece of Louisiana casualty law, so check the date on anything you read about Louisiana fault allocation, and confirm the current position against the Civil Code before relying on it either way — a source written on the other side of the change will state the opposite rule.

No Pay, No Play — one hundred thousand, twice

R.S. 32:866 is Louisiana’s answer to uninsured driving, and it is severe.

An owner who was operating without the compulsory insurance forfeits the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages and the first $100,000 of property damage.

Note what this is not. It is not a fault rule and not a comparative reduction — it is a threshold that removes the first slice of recovery entirely, before anyone argues about who caused the accident. An uninsured driver who is entirely blameless still loses the first hundred thousand of each category.

Read alongside the 15/30/25 minimums, it tells you Louisiana’s whole policy posture on auto: modest compulsory limits, and harsh consequences for going without them.

The Direct Action Statute — Louisiana’s signature rule

R.S. 22:1269 lets an injured person sue the liability insurer directly, without first obtaining a judgment against the insured. No other state has anything quite like it.

But it is conditional, and the conditions are the exam. Direct action is available only if at least one applies:

The insured has filed for bankruptcy or proceedings have commenced. The insured is insolvent. Service has been attempted without success, or the insured refuses to defend within 180 days. The action involves offenses or quasi-offenses between children and their parents, or between married persons. The insurer is an uninsured motorist carrier. The insured is deceased. Or — the practical workhorse — the insurer is defending under a reservation of rights, or has denied coverage.

There is also a procedural limit worth knowing: the insurer “shall not be included in the caption of any action” at the outset.

An item stating that Louisiana permits direct action against any liability insurer at any time is overstating a real rule — which is precisely how such items are written.

Workers’ compensation — and a one-year prescription

Coverage is mandatory from the first covered employee (R.S. 23:1031; 23:1168) — no numeric threshold. The system is administered by the Office of Workers’ Compensation, within the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

Benefits run at 66⅔% of the average weekly wage, capped at 75% of the state average weekly wage with a floor at 20% (R.S. 23:1221(1); 23:1202).

Then the deadline that catches everyone: notice to the employer within 30 days, and the claim filed within ONE YEAR of the accident (R.S. 23:1209). One year, where most states allow two or three — and in Louisiana it is prescription, a civil-law concept, not a statute of limitations. The shortest number on this page and the easiest to under-remember.