Broken Bone Injury Lawyer in New Orleans

Understanding Louisiana Bone Fracture Laws in New Orleans

Louisiana rewrote two major injury rules in the last two years. Both can decide whether you collect anything at all.

Deadline to File

• Two years from the day you were injured, under La. Civ. Code art. 3493.1

How Shared Fault Works Now

• If you are 51% or more at fault, you recover nothing
• If you are less than 51% at fault, your damages are reduced by your share
• This version of La. Civ. Code art. 2323 took effect January 1, 2026, so the date of your accident matters

Who Pays Depends on Where It Happened

A broken bone is not one kind of case. In Louisiana, the rules that decide whether you recover, and how much, come from the place you were injured.

In a store, restaurant, or hotel. Louisiana’s merchant liability statute, La. R.S. 9:2800.6, puts the entire burden on you. You have to prove three things:

• The condition created an unreasonable and reasonably foreseeable risk of harm
• The business either created it or had notice of it beforehand
• The business failed to exercise reasonable care.

The statute is strict about notice. You must show the hazard sat there long enough that reasonable care would have caught it, and an employee standing nearby does not count on its own unless that employee knew or should have known. The statute also covers hotels and inns for shops, restaurants, and lobby areas.

On a sidewalk, street, or other public property. Claims against the City of New Orleans or a state agency run through La. R.S. 9:2800, and the bar is higher. You must prove:

• The public entity had actual or constructive notice of that particular defect
• A reasonable opportunity to fix it.

Notice means something narrower here: facts that infer actual knowledge. Recognizing a cracked sidewalk is common in the area is not enough. La. R.S. 13:5106 then limits what the state and its political subdivisions pay any one injured person to $500,000, though medical care, lost earnings, future lost earnings, and property damage sit outside that limit and are recoverable on top of it. Those suits can only be filed in Louisiana state court.

In a car crash. Fault and payment follow the auto rules instead, including the at-fault driver’s liability limits and your own uninsured motorist coverage. Our New Orleans car accident lawyers handle that side of it.