Truck Accident Laws in Louisiana (2026): Deadlines & Liability

A collision with a commercial truck in Louisiana is governed by two layers of law at once. State law sets the deadline to file (in Louisiana, the prescriptive period), decides how shared fault affects recovery, and runs the state's at-fault insurance system. A separate federal layer, enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), sets the safety rules for the driver and the trucking company, and violations of those rules are often the central evidence in a serious truck case.

Louisiana also stands out because two of its core rules changed recently: the injury prescriptive period and the comparative-fault standard. This guide covers the current Louisiana rules first, then the uniform federal trucking framework. It is general legal information, not legal advice about any specific case.

This guide is part of our Truck Accident Laws by State series.

The deadline to file in Louisiana

Louisiana calls its filing deadline a prescriptive period. Historically, injury claims had a very short one-year period. That changed with Act 423 of the 2024 Regular Session, which added Civil Code article 3493.1 and set a two-year prescriptive period for delictual (tort) actions, running from the day the injury or damage is sustained. The two-year period applies prospectively, to causes of action arising on or after July 1, 2024. Injuries that occurred before that date are still governed by the prior one-year period, so the date of the crash determines which deadline applies.

Wrongful-death and survival actions follow their own timeline. They are governed by Civil Code articles 2315.1 (survival) and 2315.2 (wrongful death). Act 423 did not touch them in 2024, but Act 488 of 2025 (HB 291) later amended both articles, effective August 1, 2025, so that the claim now prescribes one year from the date of death or two years from the day the injury or damage is sustained, whichever is longer. Before that amendment, these claims were limited to a flat one year from the date of death. Because the controlling rule turns on the date of death, the operative deadline for a fatal truck crash should be confirmed carefully rather than assumed.

How shared fault works: a 2026 change

Louisiana's comparative-fault rule also recently changed. For years Louisiana followed pure comparative fault, under which an injured party's recovery was reduced by his or her percentage of fault but never barred, even at a very high percentage. Act 15 of the 2025 Regular Session amended Civil Code article 2323 to adopt a modified comparative-fault system. For incidents occurring on or after January 1, 2026, a plaintiff whose share of fault is equal to or greater than 51 percent is barred from recovering anything; if the plaintiff's fault is less than 51 percent, recovery is still reduced in proportion to the plaintiff's fault. In practical terms a plaintiff at exactly 50 percent fault still recovers (reduced by half), while a plaintiff at 51 percent or more recovers nothing. Incidents before January 1, 2026 remain under the older pure-comparative rule even if the suit is filed later.

The practical effect is significant. Under the old rule a plaintiff who was, say, 70 percent at fault could still recover 30 percent of the damages. Under the new rule that same plaintiff recovers nothing. Because trucking companies and their insurers often try to shift blame onto the injured party, the fault allocation is usually a central fight in a Louisiana truck case, and now even more so for crashes from 2026 onward.

At-fault insurance (no PIP threshold)

Louisiana is an at-fault, or tort, state, not a no-fault state. There is no mandatory personal injury protection and no serious-injury or monetary threshold to clear before suing the driver and company responsible for a crash. An injured person pursues the at-fault party (and that party's insurer) directly for medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering, and other losses.

One important caveat runs the other way. Louisiana penalizes an injured person who was driving without the liability insurance the state requires, cutting the first $100,000 off what that person can recover. That rule is described in the auto-insurance section below and is one of the harshest in the country.

Damage caps

Louisiana does not generally cap compensatory damages in an ordinary motor-vehicle injury or wrongful-death case, so a truck-crash victim's economic and non-economic damages are not subject to a blanket statutory limit. (Distinct caps exist in narrow areas such as medical-malpractice claims and certain suits against governmental entities, which are governed by their own statutes and are outside ordinary trucking claims.) Punitive damages are generally not available in Louisiana except where a specific statute authorizes them. The exception that matters most after a vehicle crash is Civil Code article 2315.4, which allows exemplary damages on proof that the injuries were caused by a wanton or reckless disregard for the rights and safety of others by a defendant whose intoxication while operating a motor vehicle was a cause in fact of the injuries. That makes a drunk or drugged truck driver one of the few Louisiana crash scenarios in which punitive damages are on the table.

State auto-insurance context

Louisiana drivers must carry minimum liability coverage of 15/30/25 (in thousands: $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident for bodily injury, $25,000 for property damage), according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Louisiana does not impose a universal PIP requirement. Those state minimums are modest compared with the federal coverage required of interstate trucks, described below.

Louisiana also has a No Pay, No Play law that can wipe out most of a claim. Under La. R.S. 32:866, an owner or operator who failed to own or maintain the compulsory motor vehicle liability security has no recovery for the first $100,000 of bodily injury and no recovery for the first $100,000 of property damage, even when the other driver was entirely at fault. The statute sets that figure at $100,000 following Acts 2025, No. 16. The bar is raised by the defense as an affirmative defense, and narrow exceptions apply, including where the at-fault driver was convicted of driving while intoxicated in connection with the crash, intentionally caused the collision, fled the scene, or was committing a felony at the time. Passengers who do not own the uninsured vehicle keep their full recovery. For a person hit by a commercial truck, this is often the single most consequential Louisiana rule after fault allocation, because it can consume the entire value of a moderate injury claim.

Federal trucking rules: the FMCSA layer

Commercial trucks are regulated by the FMCSA under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules are uniform nationwide, and proof that a carrier or driver broke one of them is usually at the center of a truck case.

Louisiana, however, limits how much that proof does on its own. Under La. R.S. 9:2800.13, when a damages action alleges that an owner, agent, shipper, transporter, or carrier violated or failed to comply with a state or federal transportation statute or regulation, that violation "shall not be prima facie evidence of negligence or fault," and "the comparative fault laws of Louisiana shall apply in these cases as in all other cases of negligence." The evidence is still admissible and can be persuasive, but a Louisiana plaintiff gets no presumption from it and must still prove ordinary negligence and that the violation helped cause the crash. Several other states treat a federal safety-rule violation as negligence per se or as prima facie negligence; Louisiana does not.

The core areas include:

• Hours of service. Under 49 CFR Part 395, a property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive beyond the 14th hour after coming on duty, must take a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and is capped at 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days. Fatigue and falsified logs are recurring issues in truck crashes.
• Electronic logging devices (ELDs). Most drivers must record their hours with an ELD that meets Part 395, replacing paper logs and creating a digital record of driving time.
• Driver qualification and CDL. Drivers must hold a valid commercial driver's license and meet medical and qualification standards under the federal rules.
• Drug and alcohol testing. Carriers must run pre-employment, random, post-accident, and reasonable-suspicion testing programs.
• Vehicle maintenance and inspection. Trucks must be systematically inspected, repaired, and maintained, with records kept, under the federal maintenance rules.

Who can be held liable

A truck case routinely involves more potential defendants than an ordinary car crash, and many are companies:

• the driver, for negligent driving;
• the motor carrier (the trucking company), often vicariously responsible for its driver and directly liable for negligent hiring, training, supervision, or retention;
• a broker or shipper in some circumstances;
• a cargo loader, when improperly loaded or unsecured freight contributes to a crash;
• a parts or equipment manufacturer, if a defective component such as brakes or tires played a role.

Identifying every responsible party matters because Louisiana allocates fault among all of them, and the new modified rule makes the allocation even more consequential.

Federal minimum insurance

Federal law requires far more coverage from interstate trucks than Louisiana requires from cars. Under 49 CFR 387.9, a for-hire motor carrier transporting general (non-hazardous) freight in interstate commerce must maintain at least $750,000 in liability coverage. Carriers hauling certain hazardous materials must carry substantially higher limits. This federal floor is one reason truck claims differ sharply from car claims.

Why preserving evidence early matters

Much of the best evidence in a truck case is electronic and can be lost. ELD and logbook data, the truck's engine control module or "black box" data, dashcam footage, and maintenance and inspection records can be overwritten or routinely discarded on a short cycle. Because of that, a written preservation (spoliation) letter sent to the carrier early can be important to keep that evidence from disappearing. The police crash report, photographs of the scene and vehicles, and your own medical records should also be preserved.

How injury cases are typically handled

Most personal-injury attorneys evaluate truck cases on a contingency-fee basis and offer a free initial consultation, meaning fees are generally a percentage of any recovery rather than an upfront charge. No lawyer can promise a particular outcome or amount, and every case turns on its own facts and evidence. Because Louisiana's deadlines differ for injury versus wrongful-death claims, and trucking evidence can disappear quickly, it is generally wise to evaluate options early.