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A Louisiana hotel owes its guests reasonable precautions against criminals. Louisiana's Supreme Court reaffirmed it in 2025.
If you were sexually assaulted, raped or trafficked at a hotel, motel, resort or casino hotel in Louisiana, the companies that own and run the property may share responsibility with the attacker. You have options.
Against the hotel, the deadline is usually the shortest. For an assault after July 1, 2024, it is generally two years from the day of the assault. At a casino hotel run by a tribe, it can be one year or less. If you were trafficked, a federal trafficking claim against a hotel, other than one run by a tribe, that knowingly benefited from the trafficking can be filed up to 10 years later, or until age 28 if you were under 18 and that is later. It requires proof the hotel took part in the venture and knew or should have known. Survivors who were under 18 have other rules against the abuser and for older claims. Do not wait for an arrest.
We represent survivors and their families. You decide when, and whether, to take any step. We work from our office at 111 Mercury St. in Lafayette and talk with survivors across Louisiana, including New Orleans.
If you are in danger, call 911. The National Sexual Assault Hotline, listed by the U.S. Department of Justice, is 1-800-656-4673. The National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1-888-373-7888, or text "Help" to 233733. Louisiana requires hotels, with narrow exceptions, to post it.
In Louisiana, you cannot be billed for a forensic medical exam after a sexual assault. Adults decide whether to report. For anyone under 18, the hospital must notify law enforcement.
Our sexual assault lawyer page covers the general law. It reaches beyond hotels.
Louisiana law bars public officials, and every party's lawyers except during trial, from publicly disclosing a sex-offense or trafficking victim's identity (R.S. 46:1844(W)). You can waive it. We go over its reach in a civil suit before anything is filed.
The duty comes from the Louisiana Supreme Court's 1982 Kraaz decision, which says a guest is entitled to "a high degree of care and protection." A hotel is not an insurer, though.
The fight is over how far the duty reaches. In Campbell v. Orient-Express Hotels Louisiana, Inc. (La. 2025), a guest was robbed in the courtyard of the Windsor Court Hotel on Gravier Street in New Orleans. The court held the duty did not reach what happened that night and reinstated judgment for the hotel. The hotel won.
As the Louisiana Supreme Court described them in Campbell, two New Orleans appeals court rulings went the other way. In Dearmon v. St. Ann Lodging, L.L.C. (La. App. 4 Cir. 2019), staff saw five men head to the elevators, and security watched them on monitors, before guests were attacked in their room. The court found genuine fact questions about the hotel's duty. It was not a verdict.
In Goldstein v. Chateau Orleans, Inc. (La. App. 4 Cir. 2021), the court found an attack on a French Quarter timeshare guest foreseeable. There had been no prior incidents. It pointed to a door the owner knew was cracked, no staff on duty and cameras no one was assigned to watch. The Supreme Court has said it may have weighed those facts differently.
We look for those facts first. Hotel falls and other injuries without an assault are covered on our hotel injury lawyer page. Security failures at apartments, bars and parking lots are covered on our negligent security lawyer page.
The proof in a hotel case is mostly the hotel's own records. We ask for them early, in writing, from the owner, the management company, the brand and any security contractor. Our first requests:
For an assault after July 1, 2024, plan on two years against the hotel, counted from the day of the assault. Older assaults and tribal casino hotels have shorter deadlines, covered below.
| Claim | Deadline |
|---|---|
| You were under 18 at the time | Different rules apply to the attacker and to old claims (see "If you were under 18"). Against the hotel, use the hotel rows by the date of the assault. If the abuse happened on or before July 1, 2024, see the June 14, 2027 revival date below. |
| Negligence claim against the hotel, assault arising after July 1, 2024 | Generally two years from the day of the assault; the law counts from the day the injury is sustained (Civil Code art. 3493.1; Act 423 of 2024, section 3) |
| Negligence claim against the hotel, assault on or before July 1, 2024 | Generally one year, and two years in some cases involving a crime of violence (former Civil Code art. 3493.10). Either way, call a lawyer right away to ask whether any claim remains. |
| Claim against the attacker (you were 18 or older) | Three years from the later of the assault or the day law enforcement or a judicial agency tells you who the offender is (Civil Code art. 3496.2). Do not count on it for the hotel. |
| Federal trafficking claim (18 U.S.C. 1595), against the trafficker, or a business such as a hotel that knowingly benefited from participation in a venture it knew or should have known engaged in trafficking | 10 years after the claim arose, or 10 years after a minor survivor turns 18, whichever is later. Not reliably available against a casino hotel run by a tribe (see below). |
The ten-year clock covers only the federal trafficking claim, including one against a hotel, but not reliably against a casino hotel run by a tribe. A Louisiana negligence claim against the same hotel still runs on the shorter hotel deadline in this table. Plan around that date.
If it happened at a casino hotel run by a tribe, different rules apply. Claims may have to go through the tribe's own claim process or tribal court, and those deadlines can be much shorter. For Cypress Bayou Casino Hotel in Charenton, a Chitimacha Tribe enterprise, the Chitimacha Tribal Court has no jurisdiction over any action brought more than one year after the event (Chitimacha code, Title IV, Sec. 701). Do not count on the ten-year federal trafficking deadline against the casino itself. A tribe can be sued only where Congress has allowed it or the tribe has waived its immunity. Call a lawyer right away.
If you were under 18:
On rehearing in June 2024, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the legislature could revive child sexual abuse claims that had already prescribed, upholding the revival law first passed in 2021 (Bienvenu v. Defendant 1, La. 2024). The case came from St. Martin Parish, in the 16th Judicial District Court. The plaintiffs alleged a priest abused them as children in the 1970s and sued the Diocese of Lafayette and St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church. The ruling decided only whether the claims could be filed, not whether anyone was at fault.
Families who lost someone face other deadlines. See our wrongful death lawyer page.
Federal law lets a trafficking survivor sue the trafficker. It also reaches anyone who knowingly benefited, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture that it "knew or should have known" engaged in trafficking (18 U.S.C. 1595(a)). Louisiana also gives trafficking survivors their own civil claim, with punitive damages available (R.S. 46:2163). We review who it reaches case by case.
In 2015 the former owner of a New Orleans motel pleaded guilty in federal court to benefiting financially from human trafficking. He admitted renting rooms to pimps he knew forced and coerced women into commercial sex, at higher rates than other guests. That was a criminal case.
Louisiana's own count reaches Acadiana. For 2020, service providers reported 759 confirmed and high-risk trafficking victims to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. Lafayette Parish was named as the place of trafficking for 26 of them (11 adults, 14 children and 1 of unknown age), and Orleans Parish for 122. Only 28 of the 58 providers the department identified sent data, and some victims may be counted twice. None of these is a hotel count.
An owner, a management company, a brand and a security contractor may each carry their own insurance. Coverage is not automatic. In Kazan v. Red Lion Hotels Corp. (La. 2022), a claim over a fatal abduction from an Alexandria motel parking lot, the Louisiana Supreme Court held the motel owner's policy excluded the claim under its assault, battery and physical altercation exclusion, and rendered judgment for the insurer. The ruling was about coverage only, not the motel's fault.
Expect the hotel to blame the attacker, even one who is never identified or sued (Civil Code art. 2323(A)).
Louisiana's general fault rule changed in 2026. For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing, and a smaller share of fault cuts the award by that percentage (Civil Code art. 2323, as amended by Act 15 of 2025, effective January 1, 2026). For causes of action that arose before January 1, 2026, fault only reduces the award.
But when an intentional wrongdoer is involved, article 2323(C) says the injured person's claim is not reduced for their own negligence, notwithstanding that general rule. We check how it applies to hotels.
Hotel claims for assaults after July 1, 2024 generally have two years from the assault (Civil Code art. 3493.1). Assaults on or before July 1, 2024 generally had one year, so call now. If it happened at a casino hotel run by a tribe, different rules apply and the deadline can be one year or less, so call right away. If you were trafficked, a federal trafficking claim against a hotel, other than one run by a tribe, that knowingly benefited from the trafficking can be filed up to 10 years later, or until age 28 if you were under 18 and that is later. It requires proof the hotel took part in the venture and knew or should have known. Survivors who were under 18 have other rules against the abuser and for older claims.
You may be able to. A hotel claim is about what the hotel did or failed to do, such as its locks, keys, staffing and cameras. Louisiana law lets fault be assigned to an attacker who is never identified or sued (Civil Code art. 2323), and the hotel will argue most of the blame belongs there. The deadline against the hotel keeps running while police investigate.
Not to get medical care. Under Louisiana law, an adult survivor decides whether to report, and a hospital cannot require a report before giving care or collecting evidence (R.S. 40:1216.1). For survivors under 18, the hospital must notify law enforcement. You can talk with a lawyer whether or not you reported, and a lawyer will explain how a report affects your case. In 2024, about one in four rapes or sexual assaults in the United States was reported to police, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Louisiana's crime victims' rights law bars public officials, and every party's lawyers except during trial, from publicly disclosing the identity of a victim of a sex offense or trafficking (R.S. 46:1844(W)). You can waive that protection. Whether it applies in a civil suit against a hotel, or lets you file under initials, is a question to ask a lawyer before anything is filed. No lawyer can promise complete anonymity.
Possibly not, but act now. Against the hotel, plan on two years from the day of the assault if it happened after July 1, 2024, or one year or less at a casino hotel run by a tribe. If it happened on or before that date, the one-year deadline may have run. Louisiana revived, until June 14, 2027, any expired claim related to sexual abuse of a minor (Act 481 of 2024), and the Louisiana Supreme Court has applied that revival to claims against a church and diocese. No court has yet said whether it reaches a hotel, so if your deadline against the hotel has already passed, treat June 14, 2027 as the date to beat. If a deadline seems to have passed, talk to a lawyer before deciding it is too late. Against the abuser there is no filing deadline (R.S. 9:2800.9), unless the claim had already expired before the law changed in June 2021. If it had, June 14, 2027 is the deadline against the abuser too.
We handle these cases on a contingency fee, so there is no attorney fee unless we win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses. The consultation is free. You can ask questions about your options without committing to anything.
The hotel, its brand and their insurers will each have lawyers. You should have one too. Our attorneys have more than 50 years of combined experience.
Call (337) 800-4000 or contact us online. The consultation is free. There is no attorney fee unless we win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses.
Past results are not a guarantee of future success. Results may vary.
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