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How A Bad Driving Record Could Impact Your Car Accident Injury Claim Or Settlement

In this article, you will learn:

• The factors that may affect your personal injury settlement
• How you insurance status could impact your case
• How insurance companies attempt to limit settlement amounts

Louisiana is a comparative fault jurisdiction which means that each party is allocated a portion of fault. For example, if you get in a car accident because someone ran a red light, on the face of it, it seems like they're at fault, but if they find out that you were speeding or texting while driving, then a portion of the fault might be yours. If you paid attention or were going the speed limit, you may have had time to stop. So, a jury or judge might say, “it was 80% of the fault of the person who ran the red light, and 20% your fault for not paying attention.” Meaning, if you have a bad driving record, it's not necessarily going to hurt your claim, but it could be something used as potential evidence in the negotiation phase.

Tactics Used By Insurance Companies In Personal Injury Cases To Deny Or Limit Settlement

First off, insurance companies are in the business of keeping their money and not giving it to you. So, it could potentially be a long process to obtain what you deserve. One of the main tactics that frustrates most is the delay tactic, because a lot of people genuinely don't like suing, and they just don’t want to be that person, but they also don't want to be a victim and end up having to pay for someone else's fault. So, insurance companies will often delay settling for as long as possible, and they’ll discuss offers with you, especially if you're unrepresented. If you don’t have an attorney, they’ll definitely do it. They won't return your calls or return your emails and when you finally talk to them, they’ll do it again.

In most cases you have in Louisiana, you have one year to bring a lawsuit. After that 366th-day, you lose your right to bring a lawsuit. If you file after that limit, they don't owe you anything because you waited too long. That's why it's so important from the very beginning to get an attorney, someone who is knowledgeable, and who knows the deadlines and tactics. Another thing, as I mentioned being a comparative fault jurisdiction, they're going to try and get you talking, and they're going to try to find ways that it potentially might be partially your fault. If they know that their person ran the red light, and they know that they're liable. Their tactic is not initially to avoid payment but to limit payment based on any fault they might be able to prove that falls at your feet. 

That's why it's so important from the very beginning to hire an attorney, and just because you file suit doesn't mean there’s going to be a trial. Oftentimes you're doing that to stop the play clock. 

What To Expect If You Are Uninsured At The Time Of An Accident That Is Not Your Fault

You might get a traffic ticket for not having any insurance, but as far as your personal injury settlement, in most cases, it wouldn’t really affect it much because the insurance company is going to penalize the person who has fault. In most cases, you are insured for a certain amount of money. So they say, look, for the first $100,000 of damages or injury, the insurance covers it. Now, if you have $400,000 damages, sometimes your personal insurance might step in and utilize what’s called underinsured motorist Insurance, also called UM or UIM. So, sometimes your own insurance company is the one that steps into compensate the difference, but it's not going to limit your ability to recover against their insurance company as long as they had insurance and they were the ones at fault. 

For more information on Impact Of Bad Driving Record On PI Claim, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

How Not Wearing A Seatbelt During A Car Accident May Hurt Your Chances Of Financial Recovery

It won’t necessarily hurt your chances. Again, it will potentially limit the amount based on the specific facts of your case, but the issue again will be how much of the fault falls at your feet. If you broke your collarbone because you hit the steering wheel, would that have happened if you were wearing your seatbelt? Maybe, maybe not. So, the injury may have been partially your fault. Now, they caused it and they bear the bulk of the responsibility if they're the ones at fault, but it might reduce that. That's why a competent attorney is going to try and head that off of at the pass. The best thing to do in that situation is you address it on the front end, and say, “this is what happened, but this is why that doesn't matter as much.” There have been cases where a person gets in the car with their young child, and they're just going three doors down to a friend’s house, but the child is not properly placed in their car seat or seatbelt. 

But unfortunately, three doors down turns into a wreck, and the child gets injured because they were not in the seatbelt or restraining seat. Find an experienced attorney knows how to address it in the beginning, frame it properly with what actually happened, and make sure that the fault lies with the person who is the one that deserves it.

Trucking Accidents

Large Commercial Vehicle Accidents And Personal Injury Claims

In this article, you will discover:

• The multiple parties at fault for most semi-truck accidents in Louisiana.
• How suing a truck operator will affect the amount of damages received.
• Why your personal injury lawsuit may end up in federal court.

In Louisiana, Who Is Potentially Liable For My Injuries Sustained From A Commercial Vehicle Or Trucking Accident?

There are different liability scenarios with commercial vehicle accidents compared to other accidents. You have the driver, whoever that person may be, and the owner of the vehicle. Sometimes the owner of the truck might not also be the owner of the trailer that they’re hauling. Any businesses or entities that own those vehicles would be on the hook, as well as their insurance providers.

With just one accident, often, you may have five or six people potentially liable. Louisiana recognizes vicarious liability. If the employee driving the vehicle is operating within the scope of their job—meaning they’re doing what they’re supposed to—then the employer is going to bear some liability. With trucking accidents or commercial vehicle accidents, there are more opportunities for recovery because there are many different players involved.

Does It Make Sense To File A Claim Or Sue The Driver Of The Commercial Vehicle Independently?

If the driver of a commercial vehicle is at fault for your accident and there isn’t sufficient coverage to compensate your claim, then the situation could arise where you need to file a claim against the operator individually. We try to avoid filing a claim against the individual just operating the truck in their employment status as often as possible.

If you are denied coverage by the insurance provider of the businesses, then yes, if the driver is at fault, you can bring a claim against them. Generally, the driver, being a regular working person, is the one with the least amount of coverage. The recovery you get from suing a driver independently is going to be less than against the business or against an insurance provider.

Does It Change My Case If The Trucking Company Responsible For The Commercial Vehicle That Hit Me Is Based Outside Of Louisiana?

If your accident claim is greater than $75,000 and the defendant is outside the state of Louisiana, your case may be affected by diversity jurisdiction. When the trucking company has no business within the state, they often have the case moved from state court to federal court.

Federal court litigation often takes a bit more time and has many different procedures. It doesn’t necessarily change the outcome of your case in terms of the laws applied or damages received. Diversity jurisdiction just gives the defendant an option to argue the case in state court, the place where the injury occurred, or not. For example, if the accident happens in Webster Parish, does the out-of-state company want to litigate a claim in front of a Webster Parish jury, or do they think they will get a fairer shake at a federal court? It doesn’t make a claim invalid; it just changes the field where we’re playing.

For more information on Personal Injury Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

In Louisiana, What Are The Severe Injuries You See As A Result Of Accidents Involving Semi-trucks Or Large Commercial Vehicles?

Accidents involving semi-trucks or other large commercial vehicles are generally going to result in more traumatic injuries due to the size of the vehicle—it’s simple physics. Using Newton’s law, the larger the vehicle that hits you, the more damage it will cause. Large commercial vehicles obviously weigh a lot more than a standard family-size vehicle. A commercial vehicle is going to hit a lot harder and cause much more damage, especially at higher interstate speeds.

Often, we see spinal and head injuries with these types of accidents. Generally, commercial vehicles have adequate insurance to provide good compensation. The main issue with these types of injuries is that they have prolonged effects, often unnoticed for a long time. With these types of injuries, you will require a medical evaluation and expert testimony to demonstrate the effects. The long-term effects increase the amount of the claim you’re owed, not only because of the person’s actions but for the changes made to your life because of your injuries.

Motorcycle Accidents

Louisiana Motorcycle Accident Personal Injury Claims

In this article, you will discover:

• Whose carelessness most commonly causes motorcycle accidents in Louisiana.
• How wearing safety gear affects your damages claim.
• Common tricks used by insurance companies to reduce the value of your personal injury claim.

What Are The Most Common Causes Of Motorcycle Accidents Across Louisiana?

The causes of most motorcycle accidents in Louisiana are pretty much the same as anywhere else. Mostly, motorcycle cases are not the fault of the motorcycle operator. Generally, it’s the carelessness of other drivers.

One of the most common causes we see is a driver not seeing the motorcycle in the lane on the interstate, and they merge into them. Generally, it’s the carelessness of another driver that causes the accident. The problem with motorcycle accidents is there’s nothing around you to protect you. Generally, the damages or injuries are much greater as compared to a car or a truck accident.

What Types Of Injuries Do You See As A Result Of Motorcycle Accidents?

From my experience, head and spinal trauma are the two primary injuries we see from motorcycle accidents. Of course, we see cuts, scrapes, bruises, and broken bones too. Louisiana is a helmet state, meaning you have to wear a helmet. But when you’re driving a motorcycle at 70 miles an hour, and you get hit by another vehicle, that helmet is only going to do so much.

As The Driver Or Passenger Of A Motorcycle, Am I Required To Wear A Helmet Or Other Safety Gear In Louisiana? Does It Hurt My Personal Injury Case If We Were Not Wearing Gear?

In Louisiana, you are required to wear a helmet, whether you’re a driver or the passenger of a motorcycle. It can hurt your case if you are found to have not been wearing one. If you have a traumatic brain injury and an expert comes back to say you wouldn’t have that same injury if you were wearing a helmet, that definitely damages your case.

It doesn’t mean your case is automatically dismissed for not wearing a helmet. It means the comparative fault portion is going to be heavier on your side. The person is still liable for the accident after they ran a stop sign then hit you, but you’re partially at fault because you did not take the necessary safety precautions.

In Louisiana, What Are Common Defenses Used By Insurance Companies To Deny Or Limit Settlements In Motorcycle Injury Accident Cases?

Generally, insurance companies try to limit payouts by citing something the operator did wrong:

• Were you wearing headgear?
• Were you wearing other protective gear?
• Were you wearing a helmet?

If you answer no, they will say, “Well, the cyclist could have prevented a large portion of the injury.”

The insurance company will also infer you did not do your due diligence in operating the bike in a safe fashion. Oftentimes, they will say you did something incorrectly. They will argue it was an unavoidable accident because the person operating the other vehicle could not have seen the motorcycle due to the size or location of the bike.

Oftentimes, in these cases, the insurance company will try to reduce the amount of damages. They don’t necessarily try to get off scot-free on liability, but they try to reapportion fault and make the cyclist as much fault as they possibly can. That’s definitely when you start needing an attorney. The attorney understands, “Hey now, we’re just dealing with numbers, and they’re trying to lower the fault distribution.”

For more information on Personal Injury Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

Slip & Fall

Slip And Fall Accidents – Common Causes And Injuries

In this article, you will discover:

• Who is liable when you slip-and-fall in a store.
• The common causes for slips and trips in Louisiana.
• How your own actions can reduce the damages you are owed.

What Is Premises Liability Law Under Louisiana Personal Injury?

In Louisiana, premises liability cases are often called slip-and-fall cases. These are unique cases because there is an additional requirement. Is the property owner aware of the thing that caused the risk? Were they due to resolve it in a timely manner? It doesn’t mean you don’t have a claim; it just restricts the liability portion of the claim.

If you go to a store and get hurt from a slip-and-fall in a puddle of water, that is not necessarily a viable claim. The question is, was the owner of the property aware of the pool of water? Were they aware of the risk, and did they have time to fix that risk? If someone before you spilled a drink then walked out of the store, and no one knew, then there might not be a liability there. However, if one of the employees saw the spilled drink and never went to get the mop, then that’s a different story.

What Are The Common Causes Of Slip-And-Fall Or Trip-And-Fall Accidents In Louisiana?

Louisiana is a rainy state, so the wet floor scenario is a common slip-and-fall cause here. It happens all the time because of the weather and humidity. Also, trip hazards from unlevel ground or steps that aren’t clearly marked become issues. Most of the time, you’re going to see the cause is something water-related on tile or concrete floor.

Then again, the issue becomes was the owner aware of the presence of that hazard? Is it somewhere that water often pools up? Was it near an ice machine they need to make sure they are doing their best to keep the area clean?

What Type Of Injuries Do You Generally See Resulting From These Accidents?

Slip-and-fall injuries vary from case to case. We mostly see joint injuries, like ankles and knees, as well as spinal and head injuries, like concussions. The injury generally depends on how the victim fell and what they fell on.

Under Louisiana Law, Is My Carelessness In A Slip-And-Fall Accident A Consideration In Determining If I’m Entitled To Compensation?

Your carelessness, or amount at fault, is considered in determining your compensation in an accident. Louisiana is a comparative fault jurisdiction, so they’re always going to look at what fault does each party bear. They assign percentages to those faults, then view the outcome of the case through those percentages. If you’re 10% at fault because you were texting while walking and not paying attention, then your claim will be reduced by 10%. It does not bar the claim outright; it just may reduce the payout you’re owed.

For more information on Personal Injury Law In Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

• Bicycle Accidents
• Dog Bites
• Premises Liability
• Work Related Injuries
• Workers Compensation Cases

Divorce

Louisiana Custody And Grounds For Divorce

In this article, you will discover:

• How long it takes to finalize a divorce in Louisiana.
• When fault matters in a Louisiana divorce.
• When a child has a say in custody decisions.

What Is The Process For Divorce In Louisiana? Are Grounds For Divorce Necessary?

There are two different types of divorce under Louisiana law: fault and no-fault. Within these types, there are subcategories. Most divorces are filed as no-fault, and under that, you have a 102 divorce, referring to Article 102 of the Louisiana Civil Code.

If you are going through a divorce and you don’t want to wait—perhaps you’ve already met someone, or you’re worried about protecting your community property—you want to go ahead and file a 102 divorce. For couples with no children, you then wait 180 days (six months) before filing a rule to show cause (finalization papers), then the court grants your divorce. If you have kids with that person, you must wait a one-year period rather than six months.

The other type of no-fault divorce is a 103 subsection 1. With this type of divorce, you wait the time period first, then file the divorce. With 102, you’ve filed, waited the six months or a year, then got it finalized; with the 103(i), you wait the six months or a year, then you file the petition for divorce. You have a hearing at that time, and the divorce is granted pretty quickly.

Under 102 and 103(i), you’re not alleging either party is at fault; you’re just saying, “Hey, we’re done.” To determine which no-fault divorce to file, it depends on how long you’ve been separated. When you go to the attorney to start the process, have you already been separated a couple of months, or did you have a knock-down-drag-out fight over the weekend, and you want it done now?

Under article 103, there are also different types of fault divorces:

• adultery,
• abuse,
• imprisonments (someone will be locked away for a felony conviction for a number of years), etc.

These reasons entitle you to an automatic divorce, but you must prove those allegations.

Often, people deal with an unfaithful spouse, and they come in wanting a divorce based on adultery. The issue with these is they oftentimes are very hard to prove. You have to have an unbiased, third-party witness to come in and give credible testimony. Even if the cheating spouse admits to the adultery, saying, “Yes, I’ve been cheating on you for 15 years!” That’s still not enough under Louisiana law to have an adultery-based divorce.

You must have that third-party witness to say, “Yes, I saw them go into the hotel room,” or whatever the case may be. Oftentimes, we get a private investigator to do this. The benefit to this is, once that finding is established by the court, you’re entitled to an automatic divorce. However, those are often much more expensive and harder to prove.

When a Couple Is Divorcing, How Is Time Sharing Or Custody Determined In Louisiana? Does The Child Have A Say?

Under Article 134 of the Louisiana Civil Code, we always look at what is in the best interest of the child (BIOC) in determining custody. This standard gives 14 factors the court is supposed to lean on in making the determination. Everything they do is done through the lens of what is best for the child and in the child’s best interest.

Whether the child has a say depends on the age and maturity of the child. There is no hard and fast rule that says when you’re age 12, you get to choose. The court looks at the maturity of the child, the circumstances of the parents, the child’s ability to reason, and then the past relationship. If you have a daddy who worked all the time, only home on the weekends, and a mom who has always been the primary caregiver, the court will take that into account.

What the court does not want is to award custody to mama because the child is 13 years old, and daddy’s house has rules, homework, and a curfew, but mama’s house doesn’t. Of course, the 13-year old wants to go live with the mama. The court’s going to ask, “Is that in the child’s best interest? Is it in their best interest to go to the house where they might not have homework done or go to school? Or is it in the child’s best interest to go to the parent who is more regimented?” In that scenario, the court will lean in less to what the child wants and more on the facts.

Conversely, we have a child of 15, fighting with her mama all the time over the mother’s new boyfriend living in the house. If the daughter is uncomfortable with him living in the house because he’s not related and she’s a young woman going through changes, the court is going to give her wishes a lot more deference. Provided both parents are offering a stable household and dad is providing proper care, the court is likely to respect the daughter’s wishes.

Custody is always done through the lens of what is best for the child.

For more information on Family Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

Child Support

Louisiana Child Support And DIY Divorces

In this article, you will discover:

• The key factors the Louisiana courts use to determine child support.
• How sharing custody can decrease the child support you owe.
• Why saving money on a DIY divorce can cost you more in the long run.

Who Is Responsible For Child Support In Louisiana When Parents Are Divorced, Not Married, Or Not Together? How Is The Amount Determined?

Child support in Louisiana is determined according to the revised statute 9:315 by an Income Shares Model. The court looks at the total combined amount of income from both parents and the number of children in the family. The court refers to the income shares chart in that statute for the total monthly gross income of the couple and the number of children to determine tort support obligation.

Let’s say a couple has two children and makes $100 dollars a month. Daddy makes $75 a month; mom makes $25 a month. The court finds $100 a month on the chart, then moves across to two children to determine it’s $10 a month to support two children on that income. The court then assigns the percentage each parent is responsible for. They will say, “Okay, dad, you’re responsible for 75% of the $100 a month, so you’re responsible for 75% of the child support, so $7.50. Mom is responsible for $2.50.” In this example, mom’s $2.50 is subtracted from Dad’s $7.50, meaning dad has to pay $5 to provide support.

Support is also dependent sometimes on child custody arrangements, so there is a whole separate chart, schedule B. If you have shared custody, you have joint custody. When one parent has physical custody of the child at any point, and it switches off. Often the dad would get the children every other weekend; mom has them for ten days, and dad has them for two. The court takes this into consideration when calculating support.

If custody is a joint shared custody agreement, generally one week-on, one week-off, each parent has the child for half the year. Then it’s not fair for dad to be paying child support in that amount. He’s already paying to support the child anyway. Schedule B may calculate less child support obligation because both parents are already carrying their home weight by having the child one week-on, one week-off.

Can I Handle My Louisiana Divorce Or Custody Case On My Own? Do I Have To Hire An Experienced Divorce Attorney?

Absolutely you can handle your own divorce or custody case, but you can also pull your own teeth. I wouldn’t recommend either. There is no requirement under Louisiana law that you hire an attorney to file anything when you’re dealing with these types of cases. Often, the issue is people don’t understand the implications, especially dealing with community property, division of assets, child support, child custody, etc.

You can file your own divorce, but you’re running the risk of realizing you don’t know what you’re doing. You might not figure it out until you’ve already got the bad end of a deal, especially if the other party is represented by an attorney. All-of-a-sudden, you owe a bunch of spousal or child support that you might not have been on the hook for if you had an attorney familiar with these matters, representing your interests adequately.

For more information on Family Law In Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

• Child Custody
• interdiction continuing tutorship – special needs for adults children

Changes That May Require Modifications To An Established Child Custody Order?

In this article, you will learn:

• How child custody orders may be changed
• The requirements for a request for modification

There are two types of judgments or orders: a consent judgment, meaning the parties agreed, or a considered decree or judgment, and that means that Mom and Dad could not agree, and the judge had to make the decision. In order to change a consent judgment meaning, there has to be a material change in circumstance, meaning something has materially changed that makes the consent judgment no longer in the best interest of the child. The court does not care about the parents’ wishes as much as they care about the child. Everything the court does is supposed to be in the child's best interest. For example, assume Dad was living in a small apartment and didn't have room for the three children. The original agreement was that he would get the kids every Saturday from 9:00 to 6:00 and now Dad goes and buys a house with four bedrooms and enough room for all the kids.

There's been a material change, and the reasoning for the previous judgement no longer exists so he can come back for a change in arrangement. That's the consent judgment. The other is a considered decree, and that is when the court has to make a decision. That is a very difficult thing to change. The Judge made the decision and now it is pursuant to the Bergeron standard, that requires more than material change; it's material change on steroids. So it is always in the best interest of the parties when they're arranging custody to try their best to come to an agreement, because when you have a consent judgment, it allows flexibility for the ever-changing ebbs and flows of life. 

If you are unable to agree, and you won't allow some negotiations, and the Judge decides it, that judgment becomes exponentially more difficult to overcome. It’s going to be much more difficult and much more expensive for you to change that down the road, no matter what happens with life's changes. You have to show that not only is there a material change, but that it would be harmful to the child to not modify the judgment, which is a much higher standard than the consent judgment. 

Situations That May Require Changes To Be Made To An Established Child Support Order

There could be a couple of different things. First, a change in income. Louisiana has an income shared model. They take the total gross income of the parties per month and put it into a chart with how many kids you have. For example, if Dad made $60 a month, mom makes $40 a month, so together, they make $100 per month, and they have two children. There's a chart in Title 15 of Louisiana Revised Statutes, you go down to $100 per month, and you go over the two kids, and it gives us the total support obligation. Then you determine the percentage of the total gross each party has. So, for example, Dad makes up 60% of the total monthly income, Mom makes up 40%. So, what the court does is 60% of $20 is $12, and so Dad’s support obligation is $12 a month.

So, a reason for changing could be now Dad or Mom makes more or less money. It could be that the previous support obligation was based on two children and now the oldest child has a graduated high school or turned 18, whatever happens later. But now that one of those children is no longer having to be supported by Mom or Dad, it is revisited. 

For more information on Modification Of A Child Custody Order In Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

The Situations That May Call For A Modification Of A Spousal Support Order

In this article, you will learn:

• How support orders may be requested to be modified
• How orders are generally enforced in LA

Unlike child support, spousal support is generally left up to the discretion of the judge. Louisiana has interim spousal support and final spousal support. Most people call it alimony in other places, but in Louisiana, it is final spousal support. Interim support is if you filed for a divorce, but the divorce hasn’t been “finalized” yet. There's a divorce pending, but it hasn’t been finalized. In this period, the spouse who has been the breadwinner has a support obligation, and the law says they have to maintain the spouse at the status quo of their standard of living. So, if they're very wealthy and making $800,000 a year and that's the status quo that the wife or husband is used to, the wife can’t just say okay, I’ll give you $2000 a month and that's it. Now you are only living off $24,000 while she has the remaining $776,000. You must maintain the status quo in the interim. During interim spousal support, fault is not a factor. Once the divorce is finalized, we turn to final spousal support. In Louisiana, final spousal support is an uphill battle oftentimes, as it’s left to the discretion of the judge, and depends on the facts of the situation at hand. The judge generally wants to limit it in duration. He doesn’t want to say you have to support your husband or your ex-husband now for the rest of your life. It’s standard. 

So in our scenario, does Dad have a master's degree in engineering and just never worked because Mom was making money, or did Dad drop out of school to take care of kids and mom’s always been the breadwinner and he's never had the opportunity to go back to school because he's been taking care of kids or vice versa? So, the court is going to look at it and say, Mom has an obligation to support Dad until he's able to get a marketable trade or degree. It's very discretionary, and very fact dependent in terms of final spousal support. It's not like other states where you can request alimony for the rest of their life. It’s limited to a percentage of the person’s total income. 

How Custody Or Support Orders Are Generally Enforced In Louisiana

The main thing is that a custody or support order is an order of the court. So, you have to file what's called a rule for contempt. You're basically alleging that they're in contempt of a court order. So, if Mom is supposed to get the kids every weekend from Friday at 4:00 to Sunday at 4:00, and Dad stops showing up at the meeting place and is not bringing them, a lot of people want to call the cops. But it's not kidnapping; you can't kidnap your own child generally, and so, the cops are not going to get involved. It’s a civil matter, and Mom must go file a rule for contempt and say the father is disobeying a court order. 

Mom could potentially receive attorney’s fees for having to, what's called, rule him into court to enforce that the judgment. As far as child support, if he doesn't pay child support and goes long enough, he can actually be arrested, and he can have all his license suspended. Not just his driver's license, but even his hunting license and fishing license can be suspended. Also, whatever your trade is, if you have to require certification from the state, those could be suspended, and you can serve up to 90 days in jail. 

For more information on Modification Of A Spousal Support Order In LA, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

Estate Planning In Louisiana

In this article, you will discover:

• Why online estate planning may cost you more money in Louisiana.
• How planning ahead can save you from unnecessary litigation.
• How estate planning can protect your assets while you’re still living.

What Is Estate Planning? Why Do We Need It In Louisiana?

Estate planning is preparing for the inevitable conclusion of life. The bible says it’s appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. Death is one appointment no person can avoid. It’s going to happen eventually; whether you step out and tragically slip-and-fall or if you die at a 103, it’s going to come.

Estate planning is determining how you want your assets—the things you worked hard to earn—divided or maintained. Often, people just don’t like talking about it or dealing with it, but all you’re doing is hurting the people that you love the most in the long run by avoiding the planning.

In Louisiana, there are certain qualifications for estate planning. For example, for the last will and testament (your will), many people want to go online and download one to do it themselves. What ends up happening is it is completely worthless. The strict requirements for a last will and testament under Louisiana law aren’t always included in these online forms. In Louisiana, you must make sure you hire someone who is familiar with these procedures and is going to ensure what you desire now while you’re alive will actually be fulfilled once you are gone.

There are other portions of estate planning, such as a power of attorney. Power of attorney allows someone to represent you in different aspects. Basically, if that person signs your name in the capacity of your agent—or in Louisiana, they’re often called a mandatary—it has the same legal effect as if you signed your own name. If you develop Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other health issues that leave you unable to care for yourself anymore, your child, spouse, or whoever may now have the ability to continue your affairs for you, such as your banking, insurance, etc.

If you develop some type of degenerative mental disease, like Alzheimer’s or dementia, there’s going to come a time when you’re no longer able to conduct your affairs. If you fail to get the paperwork done to give someone that power while you’re still in your right mind and in good health, then the only way your loved ones can start dealing with the bank or insurance companies on your behalf is to file an interdiction.

An interdiction is literally where the son, for example, has to file a lawsuit against dad, alleging dad is no longer able to take care of himself. A doctor will be appointed to evaluate dad or his medical records. The court will appoint a curator, an attorney to represent dad. Then you have a trial over the matter. A judge will have to decide, based on the doctor and the attorney, whether dad is able to care for himself. If dad is found to not be able to care for himself, then the son who brought the suit will be appointed curator, giving him the ability to make those decisions.

An interdiction process is going to cost between $5,000 and $10,000 on the low-end. By planning in advance and establishing a power of attorney, in most cases, you can save that whole process. That process also often takes eight months to a year.

Estate planning is just a matter of planning that allows you to have the flexibility to plan for all of life’s ups and downs and the inevitable conclusion of time of the human body.

Is Estate Planning Just For What Happens After I Die? Can It Benefit Me During My Lifetime?

Estate planning is not just for after you die; it can benefit you during your lifetime through power of attorneys or different trust instruments. If you have assets you want to be protected, you can do a revocable trust. This gives you the ability to control how these assets are distributed or maintained, within the limits of the law, after you die.

There is no right age to get these things done. It’s not an age thing. It’s not something you do when you turn 70 because you know it’s going to get done. You never know when tragedy might strike. You might become a 35-year-old with a degenerative mental problem, needing someone to take care of you at an early age. That’s just how life goes. It’s always best to plan for life and death.

For more information on Estate Planning Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

Louisiana Estate Planning Basics

In this article, you will discover:

• The must-have estate planning documents.
• How the progression of life changes your plans.
• Which heirs are protected by Louisiana law.

What Important Estate Planning Documents Should Be Part Of My Estate Plan In Louisiana?

If you’re going to do the basic estate plan, the main three documents you need are:

• Last will and testament
• Power of attorney (both a durable and medical power of attorney)
• Living will or end-of-life declaration

With a durable power of attorney, you can document how to deal with your bank accounts and land. With a medical power of attorney, you can deal with healthcare, long-term care, and doctor decisions.

After these big three, you can go up from there. You can spend as much money and make it as complicated as you want with different types of trusts, LLCs, corporations, and things of that nature.

How Often Do I Need To Review My Estate Planning Documents In Louisiana? Can I Make Changes Or Updates At Any Time?

There’s not a hard-and-fast rule on how often you need to review your estate plan. I would do it based on circumstance. How does life change? Have you had an additional child you didn’t have before? Do you have grandchildren you want to plan for? Estate planning documents are responsive documents; they’re reacting to the changes in your life. Update them accordingly.

Outside of an irrevocable trust, there is no limitation to updating your estate plans. You can change your last will and testament and power of attorney as often as you want to.

In Louisiana, we have codicils or amendments to the will. You don’t have to change the entire will; you can change just one line. If you had everything going to your three children in equal portions and now you have a fourth child, you can make an amendment to have everything going to your four children in equal portions. This way, little Johnny or Suzie, the surprise child you had at age 42, isn’t being left out of the will you made when you were 36. Those amendments need to be made as life changes, but there’s nothing that says you can’t make them along the way.

Louisiana is a forced heirship state, meaning there are certain classes of people that you cannot write out of your will. If you have a child under the age of 24 or a mentally or physically disabled child that is unable to care for their property, person, or business, you have to leave them something. Depending on how many children meet those qualifications, it could be from one-fourth to one-third that you have to leave them.

If you have a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old child when you pass away and you try to leave everything to their stepmom, the law is going to say, “No. That request gets reduced. Your two children will get at least one-third of anything in that will.” There are ways to plan for this. You can use life insurance to satisfy that requirement.

If you are worried about your property and how those things are maintained, you can take out a life insurance policy and make your children the beneficiary. You can make your estate the beneficiary of it. This way, your life insurance is distributed according to your will. In Louisiana, your will does not determine how your life insurance is distributed. Two separate things.

Your life insurance policy or insurance policies are going to be distributed according to who you put as the beneficiary on that policy. If you want it to be included in your will, then you make your estate the beneficiary to ensure your insurance policy is distributed according to your will. You can put in your will, “To satisfy the forced portion of my two young children, use the life insurance policy in the amount of $200,000 to satisfy the obligation I have to my kids.”

There are a lot of nuances people don’t realize. That’s why it’s so important to get an attorney to do your will, especially because there are things you cannot put in a will, like prohibited substitutions. You cannot leave your house to someone then say, “And when you die, it goes to Johnny.” Pretty much every other state allows you to do that, but not in Louisiana.

You definitely need to consult an attorney to make sure you’re not making those mistakes. They can help you find a lawful way to accomplish your goals, perhaps through a trust instrument or an LLC of some sort.

For more information on Estate Planning Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

Do I Need A Louisiana Estate Planning Attorney?

In this article, you will discover:

• How unique Louisiana laws can cost you money.
• How to ensure your estate planning documents aren’t thrown out of court.

Can I Create My Own Estate Plan Online, Or Do I Need A Louisiana Estate Planning Attorney?

Louisiana has a unique set of laws, so you absolutely need a Louisiana estate planning attorney. Louisiana is predominantly a civil code jurisdiction rooted in French and Spanish law. The other 49 states have common law, which is rooted in British law. Online estate planning attorneys are generally from other states. They are making provisions, like prohibited substitution, that are completely legal in California, Nebraska, or Tennessee, but in Louisiana, the court will throw it out. It will not be enforced because it’s not in line.

If you do it yourself or use an out-of-state attorney, the whole will might be null and void. Louisiana requires an attestation clause—one that attests the signer of the will has done so in the presence of a notary and two witnesses. If that little two- or three-sentence portion is not above the signature line in the will, then the entire will is worthless.

I frequently have clients come in with something they printed out from a legal website that is completely invalid in Louisiana. They wasted the $200 spent on it when they could have gone to a Louisiana specific attorney. You must be cognizant that Louisiana has a unique set of laws compared to the rest of the country, especially in estate planning.

For more information on Estate Planning Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

Wills and Living Wills

Estate Planning In Louisiana – Wills And Trusts

In this article, you will discover:

• When you need more than just a will.
• How a trust can safeguard your assets, now and after death.
• How certain trusts can better protect your loved ones.

Is A Will Enough On Its Own In Louisiana?

If a will is in proper form, it is enough to ensure your things go to whomever you want them to. Is a will enough for estate planning? No, a will doesn’t kick into effect until after you pass away. There are so many things that can occur before then. You want to make sure you’ve done proper planning to protect yourself, such as having an adequate power of attorney or perhaps a trust and living will

A living will, also called the end-of-life declaration, says, “I don’t want to be kept artificially alive.” Meaning, you don’t want to be on tubes and ventilators if that’s all that is keeping you alive. What it does is prevents your spouse or children from having to make that decision during a time of grief.

For example, mom has succumbed to cancer, and the doctor says, “She’s gone. The only thing keeping her alive is the ventilator and the feeding tube.” The children are not going to want to pull the plug. They feel like that is giving up hope on mom. If mom plans with a living will declaration, she has already made the decision for them without putting a burden on the kids in an already difficult time.

What Exactly Is A Trust? What Are Common Types Of Trusts?

A trust is an invisible person; it’s judicial fiction, like a ghost man on base. When I was growing up, we played baseball in the backyard. If we didn’t have enough players to play four on four, a time would come when you’d be on second base, but it is your turn at-bat. We’d say, “Ghost man on second, creating this invisible placeholder to hold your spot on second while you went to bat. A trust is kind of like that invisible placeholder.

In the eyes of the law, a trust is an invisible person. It’s a person with rights and the ability to own, sell, and distribute assets like land and money. It’s a person that can make choices but who is completely controlled by someone else.

If you are trying to protect your assets from potential future lawsuits or liabilities, you can place them in a trust. In the eyes of the law, it’s no longer you that own the asset(s) but the trust that you’ve established. Whoever establishes the trust is the settlor. Then whoever controls the trust, within reasonable limitations, is the trustee. This is the person who controls who gets what assets and how those assets are protected or managed. Lastly, there are the beneficiaries, the people whom the trust benefits.

There are different types of beneficiaries. There may be an income beneficiary. If a trust owns an apartment complex and is getting rent, the income beneficiary gets that money distributed to them according to the terms of the trust. Then you have the principal or property beneficiaries. When the trust concludes, or the assets are distributed, they are the ones who actually own the apartment complex or other property itself.

In Louisiana, we have revocable and irrevocable trusts. With a revocable trust, you establish it while you’re still alive, and you can revoke it or amend it at any time. Often, it’s set up within the trust to automatically converts to a new revocable trust upon your death. This makes it so it can’t be undone, except according to trust terms.

Louisiana actually recognizes pet trusts to benefit and maintain your pet in the event something happens to you. You can set up a trust for your children, for their college education, or what have you.

There are also spendthrift trusts with added benefits for whomever the beneficiaries are. If the beneficiary were to get a judgment against them, say they had a house built, and they didn’t pay the contractor. If the contractor sues them for the $100,000 they owe him, he cannot sue to get the money out of that trust if it is a spendthrift trust. The trust cannot be used to satisfy that judgment.

Spendthrift trusts have some restrictions on how to operate the trust, but it also offers asset protection. It does not offer protection against child support obligation, violent felonies, or things of that nature. Child support can reach into that trust, but under most circumstances, it protects the assets from judgments.

For more information on Estate Planning Law in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

• Trusts
• Power Of Attorney
• Medical Power of Attorney
• Durable Power of Attorney
  

Probate And Succession In Louisiana Explained

In this article, you will learn:

• When probate and succession may come into play
• Why probate should be avoided

Succession is the process from how property of any type moves from one generation to the next when somebody has passed away. Probate is kind of a common term, for the broad things in most states. But in Louisiana, probate is a subsection; you probate a will. If a person has a will, you must probate it, you have to file a petition to probate the will, and you ask the judge to review the will and find that it's in proper form. As in most states, in Louisiana, there are strict requirements for a valid will, and if it does not meet all those requirements, it’s null and void. A will can be created by the individual, but it is not recommended. 

If there is a will involved, you must go and probate it. The judge reviews it, and says the will is in proper form and order. From that, you have to file the petition for possession, which is basically asking that whatever the will has said be certified as valid. Now, if you die with a will, it's called a testate succession. If you die without one, it's called intestate. So, if it’s an intestate succession, you're not probating anything because there's no will. 

You're just filing a petition for possession, and the law says if you didn't have a will, then that means in their mind, you didn't have an opinion of what you wanted your assets to go to. If you don't care about it, then the law is going to have a default set of rules, and oftentimes, those rules will surprise you and people end up with stuff that you didn't assume would get. 

When Probate Is Necessary In Louisiana

Probate is only necessary in Louisiana if there is a will involved, but a succession is necessary to enable to move property from one generation to the next. This doesn’t mean property like land, any property at all that someone is going to have ownership related to it. Anytime there's a property that must be passed from one generation to the next, the only way to do that is through a succession. A small succession or a succession by affidavit can be done. If the total value of all the property that the decedent, the person who passed away, owns is under $125,000, you can do a small succession. That means it does not require the signature of a judge or a court hearing, it just is an affidavit that is filed and it's complete. It can be very beneficial for people who don't have a whole lot of assets but need to get the small piece of land that Dad had moved to the next generation. If it is more than $125,000, or if there was a will, you cannot do a small succession with a will, it has to be intestate. If there was a will or if the total value is more than $125,000, you have to open a formal succession, and then you have to have the judge review and sign off on it and possibly have a hearing depending on the facts. So the necessity is to make sure it gets from one generation to the next.

You will commonly see, especially in real estate and property, great grandparents will pass away, but they won't have a succession done. The property automatically goes to their three children. Now you have three children who own the property, and then they pass away, and each of them had three children. So now there's nine people that are title owners of the property, but no succession has been done, and then those pass away, and they all had three children, so now you have 27 names on a succession. If you’ve got to sell that 40-piece tract of land, you either have to locate and track down all 27 people who are spread out all over the nation by now, or you have to go back and start cleaning up all of the past actions. So, it’s always in your best interest to go ahead and do that succession, especially if there's land and property involved. 

For more information on Modification Of A Spousal Support Order In LA, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (318) 639-9070 today.

• Personal Disputes
• Property Disputes
• Contract Disputes