A deadline that changed after almost 200 years
Louisiana's civil law system calls this deadline "liberative prescription," not a statute of limitations, and for injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024, that period is two years under Louisiana Civil Code art. 3493.11. This is a genuinely recent change: before that date, Louisiana had just a one-year prescriptive period — one of only two states in the entire country with a deadline that short — a rule that had stood essentially unchanged since 1825. Act 423 of 2024 doubled it, but only prospectively: an injury from before July 1, 2024 still falls under the old one-year rule.
Property damage follows the same new rule
Damage to immovable property carries the same two-year prescriptive period, under the companion statute, Civil Code art. 3493.12, enacted by the same 2024 law.
Wrongful death and survival actions: a more generous, two-part rule
Wrongful death and survival actions follow their own, separately updated rule: one year from the date of death, or two years from the date the injury was sustained, whichever is longer. The one notable exception is medical malpractice wrongful death, which still prescribes strictly one year from the date of death, with no alternative longer option. See our full guide to Louisiana's discovery rule and recent prescription changes for how this plays out.
Government claims: the same deadline, but a real procedural trap
Louisiana generally doesn't give the government a shorter deadline than it gives private defendants — but it does impose a strict 90-day requirement to request service of citation after filing suit, and missing it can be just as fatal as missing prescription itself. See our full guide to Louisiana government claims.