Louisiana Wrongful Death & Survival Claims

Louisiana survival and wrongful-death actions protect different losses

Civil Code art. 2315.1 preserves the decedent's own injury/property claim for enumerated survivors. Article 2315.2 creates a separate action for damages the survivors sustain because of the death. Build separate damage ledgers; medical expense and pre-death suffering belong conceptually to the survival track, while the survivors' losses belong to wrongful death.

Both articles use an ordered beneficiary hierarchy

The first class is surviving spouse and child or children; if none, surviving parents; if none, siblings; if none, grandparents. More remote heirs do not simply move into the cause of action whenever a closer statutory class exists. Identify every member of the highest surviving class before settlement or release.

Current timing is one year from death or two years from injury/damage, whichever is longer

Articles 2315.1 and 2315.2 were updated with the prescription reform. Their current text gives the survival/right-of-action and wrongful-death action the longer of one year from death or two years from the day injury or damage was sustained. Determine accident, injury and death dates immediately rather than applying an older one-year-only summary.

Coordinate liability, UM/UIM, survivor authority and provider privileges before settlement

Identify every liability and UM/UIM policy, highest-ranking statutory survivor class, survival damages, wrongful-death damages and asserted medical/provider privileges. A global release should specify which persons and causes of action are resolved. Verify whether succession or representative documents are also needed for property or contractual claims beyond the Civil Code survivor causes.

Closing guidance

Treat a Louisiana fatal crash as separate survival and wrongful-death claims, identify the highest statutory survivor class, and use the current timing language rather than older one-year-only summaries.