Lafayette Personal Injury Lawyers

Lafayette Louisiana Personal Injury Lawyers

You were hurt. Now an adjuster is calling, an offer is on the table, and it is nowhere close to covering your medical bills. That is the moment most people call us.

Brandt & Sherman is a Lafayette personal injury law firm with more than 50 years of combined experience. Our Louisiana personal injury attorneys handle claims across Lafayette Parish and Acadiana. No attorney fee unless we win your case. The first case review is a free consultation.

Cases we handle

• Car accidents. Rear-end collisions, intersection wrecks, uninsured and underinsured motorist claims.
• Truck accidents. Commercial trucking cases carry more insurance and more lawyers. Driver logs and telematics data disappear fast, so they need to be preserved early.
• Motorcycle accidents. Riders get blamed for wrecks they did not cause. We push back on that.
• Workers' compensation. Denied claims, cut-off benefits, and disputes over which doctor you are allowed to see.
• Premises liability. Property owners have to keep their premises reasonably safe.
• Wrongful death. Compensation for families who lost a spouse, child, parent or sibling to someone else's negligence.

You can seek compensation for medical bills, lost wages and reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, property damage, and long-term care in catastrophic injury cases involving spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries.

Louisiana injury law changed in 2024, 2025 and 2026

Two legislative sessions rewrote the rules that decide what your claim is worth, and the changes landed across three years. Three changes matter most.

You have two years to file, not one. Louisiana calls its filing deadline prescription, the state's term for a statute of limitations. Civil Code article 3493.1 moved personal injury claims from one year to two for injuries arising after July 1, 2024. Injuries on or before that date keep the old one-year deadline.

A 51% comparative fault bar took effect January 1, 2026. If you are found 51% or more at fault you recover nothing. At anything under 51% your award is reduced by your share rather than lost, so 50.5% still leaves you a claim. For causes of action that arose before 2026, the accepted reading is that any fault of yours only reduced what you recovered. That is why insurance companies now argue fault harder than they used to.

What your medical bills are worth depends on who paid them. Where your health insurer or Medicare paid an in-network provider, your recovery for that care is what was actually paid plus your deductibles and co-pays, not what was billed. A $60,000 hospital bill settled by your insurer for $18,000 is an $18,000 claim item, and that limit has been Louisiana law since 2021. For suits filed on or after January 1, 2026, Act 466 of 2025 also removed the 40% award that used to cover the gap, and the jury now hears both figures. Bills you still owe, including anything under a hospital lien, are a separate question and are often still recoverable.

Most people have no idea about these changes. It is the difference between a fair settlement and a bad one. Our guide to what changed in Louisiana injury law goes through each change and the dates it keys to.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Louisiana? Two years for an injury arising after July 1, 2024. Injuries on or before that date fall under the old one-year prescriptive period, and medical malpractice and wrongful death claims follow separate timelines. Call us with your date of injury and we will tell you your actual deadline.

How much does a personal injury lawyer cost? Nothing upfront. We work on contingency, so our attorney fee comes out of what we recover and there is no attorney fee if we do not win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses in addition to the fee.

Can I still recover if the accident was partly my fault? Yes. For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, your recovery is reduced by your share at any fault under 51%, and barred at 51% or more. For earlier causes of action, the accepted reading is that fault only reduced what you recovered. Call us with the facts before you accept anyone's number.

Talk to a Lafayette personal injury attorney today. Free case review. No attorney fee unless we win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses. Call (337) 800-4000.