What Out-of-State Attorneys Should Know About Louisiana Civil Procedure
Current as of June 2026.
Louisiana is the only state whose private law runs on the civil law tradition rather than common law, and that single fact trips up more out-of-state counsel than any other. Its public, constitutional, and criminal law largely track national norms. But its private law—obligations, property, successions, and tort (delictual) actions—is governed by the Louisiana Civil Code, not by an accumulating body of judicial precedent.
For a litigator coming from a common law jurisdiction, importing the wrong assumptions is not a stylistic problem. It produces missed deadlines, mislabeled filings, and exceptions that end a case before it reaches the merits. Three recent statutory changes make the current moment especially treacherous, and the state’s local counsel rules are stricter than most visitors expect.
Substantive code, hybrid procedure
The first thing to internalize is where the civil law governs and where it meets familiar American procedure.
Louisiana’s substantive private law lives in the Civil Code. The Code—not case law—is the authoritative source of legal principle. Courts begin with the text of the article, not with a search for a matching precedent.
Louisiana’s procedural law, by contrast, is a hybrid. The Code of Civil Procedure and the Uniform Rules for Louisiana District Courts borrow heavily from common law practice and the Federal Rules, so you will find depositions, summary judgment, requests for production, and class certification. The mechanics feel familiar; the terminology does not. Applying common law labels to Louisiana filings is a reliable way to confuse a brief and irritate a judge.
The vocabulary that will catch you
A handful of concepts depart sharply from common law practice. Learn these before you draft anything.
1. Prescription, not statute of limitations
What other states call the statute of limitations, Louisiana calls the prescriptive period. Under civilian principles, “liberative prescription” does more than bar the remedy—it extinguishes the underlying obligation through the passage of time.
These deadlines recently changed. Effective July 1, 2024, Act No. 423 (House Bill 315) extended the prescriptive period for delictual actions (torts) and for damage to immovable property from one year to two. The new provisions were enacted as Civil Code articles 3493.11 and 3493.12 and codified as articles 3493.1 and 3493.2—worth noting, because you will see both citations in the wild, and the codified numbers are the correct ones to cite.
The change is prospective only. For a cause of action that arose before July 1, 2024, the old one-year period still controls. The practical consequence is unforgiving: a petition filed even one day late draws a peremptory exception of prescription and an early dismissal. Before anything else, pin down the exact date of injury and confirm which window applies.
2. Jurisprudence constante, not stare decisis
Stare decisis—the rule that a single decision can bind lower courts—does not formally govern interpretation of the Civil Code. Louisiana instead applies jurisprudence constante.
Under that doctrine, one decision is merely persuasive. Authority builds only when a long, unbroken line of cases settles on the same reading of a Code article; that consensus then carries real weight. The judge’s constitutional task is to interpret the codified text itself, not to locate a single on-point case. For brief writers, the lesson is structural: anchor the argument in Code text first, then bring in cases as support.
3. The new 51% comparative fault bar
For more than four decades Louisiana followed pure comparative fault, under which a plaintiff could recover something even while bearing nearly all the blame—a plaintiff 99% at fault could still collect 1%.
That era ended. Act No. 15 (House Bill 431), signed in May 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, amended Civil Code article 2323 and moved the state to modified comparative fault with a 51% bar:
- A plaintiff found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing.
- A plaintiff found 50% or less at fault recovers, reduced by their share.
Like the prescription change, this applies prospectively—to causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026; earlier incidents stay under the old pure rule even if suit is filed later. The shift rewrites risk modeling, valuation, and settlement strategy, because a one-point swing in allocated fault can flip a case from reduced recovery to zero. Expect aggressive fault-shifting from defense and insurers, and treat early evidence preservation as central rather than routine.
Pro hac vice and the active local counsel rule
You cannot file a petition, sign a motion, or appear in a Louisiana state court on your own. To practice on a temporary basis, out-of-state counsel must obtain admission pro hac vice under Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XVII, Section 13—and that admission requires associating a resident Louisiana attorney.
This association is substantive, not a formality. Under Rule XVII:
| Responsibility | What local counsel must do |
|---|---|
| Pleadings and filings | Review and sign all written pleadings, motions, and briefs; an out-of-state attorney’s signature alone is not enough. |
| Counsel of record | Serve as counsel of record, remaining responsible to both client and court. |
| Court appearances | Stay actively engaged, attend hearings, and maintain a real working command of the case. |
Louisiana judges expect local counsel to handle procedural questions, manage local-rule variations, and keep the visiting team within regional practice. Treating local counsel as a rubber stamp invites revocation of pro hac vice status and possible sanctions. (Narrow exceptions exist—limited reciprocity under La. R.S. 37:214–15 and a separate in-house counsel license—but they are exceptions, not the default.)
A working checklist for visiting litigators
- Bring in local counsel early. Retain them before drafting initiating or responsive pleadings, so formatting and procedure are right from the first filing.
- Fix the prescriptive window. Determine from the exact date of injury whether the one-year or two-year period applies.
- Lead with the Code. In any memorandum, open with the governing Civil Code articles and legislative intent before turning to case law or jurisprudence constante.
- Re-price for the 51% bar. Revisit defense strategy and settlement valuations to reflect the heightened stakes of fault allocation for post-2026 claims.
Litigating in Louisiana means setting down common law instincts and respecting the mechanics of a code-based hybrid system. With an engaged local team and close attention to the controlling Code articles, out-of-state practitioners can protect their clients without learning these lessons the expensive way.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Louisiana’s prescriptive periods, comparative fault standard, and procedural rules are subject to statutory exceptions and strict, time-sensitive deadlines. Anyone facing a Louisiana litigation matter should consult active, licensed local counsel about the specific rules and facts governing their case.
