Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries in Louisiana

Louisiana's slip-and-fall rules come from statutes. A store or other merchant must use reasonable care to keep aisles, passageways and floors reasonably safe; a person who falls in a store must prove the condition was an unreasonable and foreseeable risk, that the merchant created it or had actual or constructive notice of it beforehand, and that the merchant failed to use reasonable care. Constructive notice means the condition existed long enough that it would have been found with reasonable care. For other property, the owner or custodian of a thing or building is liable for damage from its defect only if the owner knew or should have known of the defect, the damage could have been prevented with reasonable care, and the owner failed to use that care.

A public entity (the state, a parish, a city or other political subdivision) can be held liable for an injury caused by the condition of a thing in its care, such as a sidewalk or street, only if it had actual or constructive notice of the particular defect before the accident, had a reasonable chance to fix it, and failed to do so. Constructive notice means facts that infer actual knowledge. A public entity that only puts up warnings or barricades on property it does not own or control does not thereby take on responsibility for that property. The statute does not itself say whether the owner of property next to a public sidewalk is responsible for it.

One set of laws covers both the state and local governments (parishes, cities and other political subdivisions). Suits must be filed in a Louisiana state court, and total liability for general damages for personal injury or wrongful death to one person is capped at $500,000, not counting property damage, medical care, and lost earnings or support. A public entity is liable for a defective thing in its custody only if it had actual or constructive notice of the defect and a reasonable chance to fix it. The sections reviewed do not set a separate written notice-of-claim deadline before suing a local government; the general filing deadline for injury suits applies.

Modified comparative fault with a 51% bar, effective January 1, 2026. An injured person who is 51% or more at fault cannot recover damages; a person who is less than 51% at fault has damages reduced by his or her percentage of fault. Fault is assigned to everyone who contributed, including non-parties. Damages are not reduced when the other party was an intentional wrongdoer.

Two years. Delictual (tort) actions, including personal injury claims, are subject to a two-year prescriptive period that begins on the day the injury or damage is sustained. This two-year rule took effect July 1, 2024, when the former one-year rule (Civil Code art. 3492) was repealed.