Slip & Fall Lawyer in Louisiana

No. Louisiana's premises liability is governed by Civil Code Article 2317.1, which creates liability based on the custodian's knowledge of and failure to remedy a defect — not on the traditional common law status of the injured person. This means there is no threshold determination of whether you were an invitee or licensee before the duty analysis begins. However, for merchant slip-and-fall cases specifically, R.S. 9:2800.6 imposes a strict three-element burden that plaintiffs must affirmatively prove: the merchant had actual or constructive notice of the specific hazardous condition, the condition presented an unreasonable risk of harm, and the merchant failed to exercise reasonable care. This merchant-specific statute is more plaintiff-unfriendly than the general Article 2317.1 framework and applies to grocery stores, big-box retailers, and similar commercial establishments. Comparative fault under Article 2323 (now a 51% bar since January 1, 2026) applies in all cases.

Under R.S. 9:2800.6, a plaintiff in a Louisiana merchant slip-and-fall case must prove all three of the following: (1) The merchant had actual notice — someone on staff knew of the specific hazardous condition — or constructive notice, meaning the condition existed for a sufficient period of time that the merchant should have discovered it through reasonable inspection. Louisiana courts require temporal evidence for constructive notice; a hazard that appeared moments before the fall may not qualify. (2) The condition presented an unreasonable risk of harm that was reasonably foreseeable. (3) The merchant failed to exercise reasonable care in inspecting for or remedying the condition. Failure to prove any single element defeats the entire claim. The temporal notice requirement is the most commonly litigated and most commonly lost element. This is why preserving surveillance footage immediately — which can show how long the hazard was present — is a litigation emergency in Louisiana merchant cases.

The liberative prescription for a premises liability claim in Louisiana — whether based on Article 2317.1 custodian liability or R.S. 9:2800.6 merchant liability — is generally one year from the date of injury under Civil Code Article 3492 governing delictual actions. This one-year period cannot be extended simply because you did not immediately know the severity of your injuries; the clock typically runs from the incident date. Louisiana's extended two-year prescription under Article 3493.1 (added in 2024) applies to certain offenses causing physical injury but its application to pure premises/custodial liability versus intentional acts is a developing area of law. Do not assume the longer period applies to your fall case. The practical urgency is not the prescription period itself — it is the evidence preservation crisis. Surveillance footage, cleaning logs, and witness statements that prove the Article 2317.1 or 9:2800.6 elements disappear within days to weeks. Act immediately.

Effective January 1, 2026, Louisiana's fault system changed from pure comparative fault (where any plaintiff could recover reduced by their percentage of fault) to a modified comparative fault system under Civil Code Article 2323 as amended by Act 423 of 2024. Under the new law, if a plaintiff is found to be more than 50% at fault for their own injury, they recover nothing. In premises liability cases, this means defendants will now argue more aggressively that you were comparatively at fault — inattentive walking, improper footwear, ignoring posted warnings, or any behavior that a jury might attribute to you. Prior to January 1, 2026, being 60% or 70% at fault still meant partial recovery. Now those plaintiffs recover nothing. Cases that occurred before January 1, 2026 are likely governed by the prior pure comparative fault system. Cases occurring on or after that date are subject to the 51% bar. The law change makes early legal representation and aggressive evidence collection — to minimize attributed comparative fault — more important than ever.

Yes. Falls on state or local government property in Louisiana are subject to the Louisiana Governmental Claims Act (R.S. 13:5106), which caps damages at $500,000 per claimant regardless of the severity of injury. State and local government entities retain limited sovereign immunity protections but are subject to premises liability under Article 2317.1's custodian framework. The one-year prescription period applies to government premises claims as well, but time spent identifying the correct governmental entity — whether a property is managed by DOTD, a parish, a municipality, or a state agency — can be critical. Falls on state highway right-of-way, at state university facilities, in state parks, or on any publicly owned building require immediate identification of the responsible entity to ensure both proper service and proper claim procedures. The $500K cap makes large-injury cases against government defendants structurally different from private-premises cases and affects how damages should be built and presented.