What to do after a car accident in Louisiana

A crash is disorienting, and the minutes right after one are exactly when Louisiana's rules start to matter. Baton Rouge alone logged 15,038 reported crashes in 2025, and 1,108 in May 2026.¹² Most of those drivers ended up with a claim to file and a set of deadlines and coverage rules that are specific to this state. Here is what actually applies in Louisiana, with the statute behind each point.

At the scene

Stop, check for injuries, and move out of live traffic if you safely can. Call the police. A crash investigated by Louisiana State Police generates an official report you can later buy online for $11.50, for non-toll-road crashes that happened on or after August 31, 2018.³ Fatal-crash reports aren't sold online and have to be picked up in person at a Troop office, and a report written by a city police department or a sheriff comes from that agency instead. If you need the report, our Louisiana crash report page walks through how to get it.

Trade names, license, plate, and insurance details with the other driver. Photograph the vehicles, the road, and anything that shows how the wreck happened. Get checked by a doctor even if you feel fine; some injuries surface days later, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster points to.

Louisiana is an at-fault state

Louisiana has no no-fault or PIP system. You pursue the driver who caused the crash and that driver's insurer, and fault decides who pays and how much.⁴ That puts the fault split at the center of almost every claim.

As of January 1, 2026, how fault gets shared changed. Louisiana used to follow pure comparative fault, where an injured person could recover something even if they were 90 percent to blame. Now the state uses a modified comparative rule: if you are 51 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing, and below that your damages are cut by your own percentage of fault.⁴ So a $100,000 award with a jury finding you 20 percent at fault becomes $80,000, and at 51 percent it becomes zero. The one carve-out is that your own negligence won't reduce what you recover from someone who hurt you intentionally.⁴ Because a few percentage points can now be the line between a real recovery and nothing, the fight over fault carries more weight than it did a year ago.

The deadline that changed

You generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit for your injuries.⁵ That is newer than most people realize. Louisiana ran on a one-year deadline for generations, and Act 423 of 2024 doubled it to two years for accidents happening on or after July 1, 2024.⁵ Damage to your vehicle falls under the same two-year rule.⁵ Miss it and the claim is almost always dead, no matter how badly you were hurt, so treat the date of the wreck as the day the clock starts.

The insurance you must carry

Louisiana requires liability limits of at least $15,000 for injury to one person, $30,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage, written as 15/30/25.⁶ That's the floor, and it's a low one. Serious injuries routinely run past $15,000, and if the at-fault driver carries only the minimum, that cap is often all their policy will pay.

This is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters here. Insurers have to offer you UM/UIM at limits equal to your liability coverage, but you can reject it, take lower limits, or take economic-only coverage, as long as you do it in writing on the state form.⁷ If you signed that form without reading it, you may have waived the coverage that would step in when the other driver has too little. Medical payments coverage is optional too, a small add-on some drivers buy to cover early medical bills regardless of fault. It isn't required, and Louisiana doesn't put a Florida-style filing deadline on it.

What a claim can be worth

Ordinary car accident claims in Louisiana have no statutory cap on compensatory damages. The $500,000 figure people repeat is a medical malpractice cap, and it even excludes future medical care; it does not touch a car crash case.⁸ Your recovery is measured by your actual losses: medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.

Punitive damages are a different story. Louisiana bars them by default and allows them only where a specific statute says otherwise. The one that comes up most after a crash is exemplary damages against a drunk driver. If someone's intoxication behind the wheel was a cause of the wreck and the conduct showed wanton or reckless disregard for the safety of others, the law allows extra damages on top of your compensatory recovery.⁹

The phone law is now enforced

Since January 1, 2026, Louisiana enforces a full handheld ban. Act 288 of 2025 makes it illegal to hold or physically support a phone to call, text, or use apps while driving; hands-free is fine, and you can handle the phone when you're lawfully stopped.¹⁰ Police issued warnings only through the end of 2025 and began writing citations in 2026.¹⁰ The fine is $100 in most places and $250 in school and highway construction zones, and it doubles if you cause a crash.¹⁰ Outside those zones it's a secondary offense, meaning an officer needs another reason to pull you over first. For your claim, this matters as evidence, because a driver holding a phone at the moment of impact is a driver a jury can find at fault.

Your vehicle

Even a well-repaired car is worth less on paper once it has a wreck on its history, and Louisiana lets you pursue that lost value from the at-fault driver. We cover how to document and claim it on our Louisiana diminished value page.

When to get help

Two years feels like plenty of time until you're negotiating with an adjuster whose job is to close your claim for less. If the injuries are real, the fault is disputed, or an insurer is stalling, talk to a Louisiana attorney early. You can find one through our legal directory.

The rules above are the ones people miss most: a filing deadline that quietly doubled to two years, and a fault line that moved to 51 percent and can now zero out a claim over a few percentage points. Knowing them before your first call to an insurer is worth more than anything an adjuster will volunteer.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. thatcarhitme.com, Baton Rouge, LA Crash Report, 2025 annual report. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/louisiana/baton-rouge/2025-annual-report

2. thatcarhitme.com, Baton Rouge, LA Crash Report, May 2026. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/louisiana/baton-rouge/may-2026-report

3. Louisiana State Police, Crash Report Purchase Portal. https://crashreports.dps.la.gov/

4. La. Civ. Code art. 2323 (comparative fault), as amended by Acts 2025, No. 15, eff. Jan. 1, 2026. https://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/law.aspx?d=109387

5. La. Civ. Code art. 3493.1 (two-year prescription for delictual actions), enacted by Acts 2024, No. 423, eff. July 1, 2024. https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=1386443

6. La. R.S. 32:900(B)(2) (compulsory motor vehicle liability limits). https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=88632

7. La. R.S. 22:1295 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=508161

8. La. R.S. 40:1231.2 (medical malpractice total damage cap). https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=97087

9. La. Civ. Code art. 2315.4 (exemplary damages for an intoxicated driver). https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=109373

10. La. R.S. 32:59, enacted by Acts 2025, No. 288 (hands-free driving law). https://legis.la.gov/Legis/law.aspx?d=1429150