# If a Drunk Driver Hit You This Labor Day

A drunk driving crash leaves two things behind: injuries to treat and a claim to sort out. What matters in the first week, how the criminal case and your own claim run on separate tracks, and how the Louisiana and Texas rules actually work, in plain words.

A drunk driving crash leaves two things behind: injuries to treat and a claim to sort out. The first comes before the second. Most of what follows can wait until you have seen a doctor and have the paperwork in one place.

This is the version we would give a friend across the table: what to do in the first week, how the criminal case and your own claim run on separate tracks, and how the Louisiana and Texas rules actually work. Skip around. Come back to it.

## First, the things only you can do this week

**Get looked at, and keep going back.** Even if you walked away, get a medical evaluation. Adrenaline hides concussions, internal bleeding, and disc injuries, and a lot of them [show up a day or two later](/resources/car-accidents/injuries/personal-injury-and-delayed-onset/). In Caddo, Bossier, and Webster parishes the serious cases end up at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport on Kings Highway, the region's Level I trauma center. On the Northshore it's St. Tammany Parish Hospital or Lakeview in Covington, and in Lake Charles it's Lake Charles Memorial on Oak Park Boulevard. Whichever emergency room it was, the chart it opened that night is the first page of your file. Keep every follow-up appointment. A gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster points to.

**Write things down while they're fresh.** The crash report number and the agency that responded. Inside the city limits that's the city police, whether Shreveport, Bossier City, Minden, Ruston, Covington, or Lake Charles. Outside the limits it's the parish sheriff, and on the interstates it's often Louisiana State Police. Reports take a few days to come available, so ask how to get yours before you leave the scene or the hospital.

**Photograph everything, then keep photographing.** The vehicles, the road, and your injuries as they change over the first two weeks. Keep the discharge paperwork, the prescriptions, the mileage to appointments, and the note from your employer about missed shifts.

**Flag the video before it's gone.** Bar and restaurant cameras record over themselves in days or weeks. So do dashcams and doorbells. The bars downtown on Texas Street, the East Bank District in Bossier City, the casino floors off I-210, the game-day crowds around Louisiana Tech, and the restaurants around downtown Covington all run cameras. If you know where the driver was before the crash, that footage matters, and a preservation letter in the first week is what keeps it. In Louisiana it isn't for a claim against the bar. It's proof of how drunk the driver was, which is what opens the door to exemplary damages below.

**Don't talk to their insurer yet.** You're not required to give the other driver's insurance company a [recorded statement](/resources/car-accidents/insurance/recorded-statements-after-a-crash/), and there is no upside to doing it before the injuries are known. The same goes for posting about the crash or the weekend online. The longer list of early mistakes is in [what not to do after a car accident](/resources/car-accidents/process/what-not-to-do-after-a-crash/).

That's the first week. Everything below can wait.

## Two cases, and only one of them is yours

The state is going to prosecute the driver. You're going to have a claim for what the crash did to you. Those two things run on separate tracks, and understanding that early takes a lot of pressure off.

**The criminal case belongs to the district attorney** for the parish where the wreck happened: Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Lincoln, St. Tammany, or Calcasieu for the communities we work in. In Louisiana the charges run from DWI under La. R.S. 14:98 up through [vehicular negligent injuring](/resources/car-accidents/fault/what-is-first-degree-vehicular-negligent-injury-in-louisiana/) and vehicular homicide. In Texas the ladder is DWI, intoxication assault, and intoxication manslaughter under the [Texas Penal Code](/resources/car-accidents/fault/texas-penal-code-for-accidents-involving-injury/). Whether it becomes a felony turns on the injury and the driver's record, which we cover in [is drinking and driving a felony](/resources/car-accidents/laws/is-drinking-and-driving-a-felony/).

You're a witness and a victim in that case, not a party. You can give a victim impact statement, and once you register with the district attorney's victim assistance office you're entitled to notice of hearings under La. R.S. 46:1844 or Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 56A.051. One phone call this month does that. A Louisiana court must order restitution for proven out-of-pocket loss under La. C.Cr.P. art. 883.2, and a Texas court may under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42.037, but restitution almost never comes close to what a serious injury costs.

**The civil claim belongs to you.** It's where the money for treatment, lost income, and everything the injury took from you comes from, and you control it. You can bring it whether or not the driver is charged, whether or not they're convicted, and even if the charge gets pleaded down to a traffic ticket. The reason is the standard of proof. A prosecutor has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A civil jury decides what's more likely than not. In Louisiana, if the driver is convicted after trial or pleads guilty, that conviction comes into your case under La. C.E. art. 803(22) to prove the facts it rests on. A no-contest plea doesn't.

Where you file follows the parish line, not the city limit. Under [La. C.C.P. art. 74](https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=112240) a damages suit goes in the parish where the wrongful conduct happened or where the damages were sustained, which for a wreck is almost always the parish of the crash. A Shreveport wreck goes to the Caddo Parish Courthouse on Texas Street. Across the river in Bossier City it goes to Benton, not Bossier. Minden goes to the 26th Judicial District Court on Main Street, Ruston to the Third on West Texas Avenue, Covington to the 22nd on North Columbia Street, and Lake Charles to the 14th on Lakeshore Drive. If you're not sure which side of a parish line you were on, the crash report says.

## The law you're dealing with in Louisiana

Here is the short version of each rule, then the citation, so you can check us.

**You have two years, and the clock is already running.** Louisiana calls it a prescriptive period. For a crash on or after July 1, 2024, [La. C.C. art. 3493.1](/resources/car-accidents/laws/motor-vehicle-statute-of-limitations-in-louisiana/) gives two years from the date of the wreck. Miss it and the case is usually dismissed no matter how clear the fault. A wrongful death action prescribes in the longer of one year from the death or two years from the injury. Louisiana does not pause the clock for a child. Prescription runs against minors under La. C.C. art. 3468, so a parent or tutor files on the child's behalf inside the same two years.

**Drunk driving is the one place Louisiana allows punitive damages.** The state generally doesn't. [La. C.C. art. 2315.4](https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=109373) is the exception: exemplary damages are available when the driver's intoxication was a cause in fact of your injuries and the conduct showed wanton or reckless disregard for other people. There is no cap and no multiplier. What you have to prove is laid out in [when punitive damages apply in a Louisiana crash case](/resources/car-accidents/laws/when-can-punitive-damages-apply-in-a-louisiana-crash-case/). This is why the bar footage and the blood alcohol result matter so much.

**The bar is almost never on the hook in Louisiana.** This one surprises people. La. R.S. 9:2800.1 shields bars, restaurants, and social hosts who served a person of lawful purchase age. The statute's theory is that the drinking, not the serving, caused the crash. The shield falls away only if the person served was under 21, or was forced to drink, or was told the drink had no alcohol in it. Our [Louisiana drunk driving accident page](/louisiana/car-accident-lawyer/accident-types/drunk-driving/) goes deeper.

**Your own policy may be the one that pays.** A minimum-limits driver cannot cover a surgery. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is your insurer paying you when theirs runs out, and Louisiana requires every auto insurer to offer it under [La. R.S. 22:1295](https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=508161). A rejection only counts if it was made in writing on the approved form. Pull the declarations page for every vehicle in the house, because coverage on a car you weren't even in can apply. Our guide to [Louisiana UM coverage](/resources/car-accidents/insurance/uninsured-motorist-coverage/) explains what a valid rejection looks like.

**If you were uninsured yourself, the DWI changes the math.** Louisiana's [no pay, no play rule](/resources/car-accidents/insurance/what-are-the-no-pay-no-play-rules-in-louisiana/) in La. R.S. 32:866 normally blocks an uninsured victim from collecting the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages and the first $100,000 of property damage. That bar lifts when the other driver was cited for DWI as a result of the crash and is later convicted or pleads no contest.

**If the driver was working, the employer answers too.** A delivery van on Youree Drive, a contractor's truck coming off the plant side of the Calcasieu River in Westlake, a company car headed home from a Louisiana Tech game. La. C.C. art. 2320 puts the employer on the hook for an employee's conduct on the job, and commercial policies are a different size than personal ones. Someone who handed the keys to a driver they knew or should have known was drunk faces a negligent entrustment claim under Joseph v. Dickerson, 754 So. 2d 912 (La. 2000).

**If a public vehicle was involved, two rules shape everything.** A suit against a parish, city, or other political subdivision is tried to a judge with no jury under La. R.S. 13:5105, and general damages against the state or a subdivision are capped at $500,000 per person under La. R.S. 13:5106. A City of Shreveport truck, a Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's unit, a DOTD crew on I-49: those cases start differently from the first day. The [government vehicle claims guide](/resources/car-accidents/fault/government-vehicle-claims-guide/) covers it.

## If the crash was in Texas, or the bar was

A Labor Day drive from Shreveport or Lake Charles reaches the state line fast. I-20 enters Caddo Parish at Greenwood from Harrison County, and I-10 enters Calcasieu Parish at Vinton from Orange County. When Texas is in the facts, the rules shift.

- **Deadline.** [Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003](/resources/car-accidents/laws/motor-vehicle-statute-of-limitations-in-texas/) gives two years from the crash, and two years from the death for wrongful death. Texas does pause the clock for an injured child until 18 under § 16.001.
- **Punitive damages.** [Chapter 41](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm) allows exemplary damages on clear and convincing proof of gross negligence and normally caps them. Section 41.008(c) lifts the cap when the conduct amounts to intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter.
- **The bar.** Texas has a real dram shop law. Under [Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/AL/htm/AL.2.htm) a licensed provider is liable for serving someone who was obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger, when that intoxication caused the crash. A driver overserved in Marshall or Orange who crashes on the Louisiana side may give you a Texas provider to look at. Get the receipts and the tab.
- **Government defendants.** Written notice within six months under [§ 101.101](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.101.htm), and some cities set shorter periods by charter.
- **Your own coverage.** Texas requires insurers to offer UM/UIM under [Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm), and a named insured's rejection has to be in writing.
- **Employers and owners.** Texas reaches the employer through respondeat superior and the owner through negligent entrustment, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Mayes, 236 S.W.3d 754 (Tex. 2007).

Our [Texas car accident](/texas/car-accident-lawyer/) and [Louisiana car accident](/louisiana/car-accident-lawyer/) pages cover the rest of each state's rules.

## Where the money actually comes from

The at-fault driver's policy is the first layer and often the smallest. After that it's your own UM coverage, then an employer's commercial policy if the driver was working, then any umbrella policy the driver carried. Health insurance, MedPay, or PIP keeps treatment moving in the meantime, and those payers come back for reimbursement out of any settlement. Medicare must be repaid under 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(b)(2). Louisiana Medicaid has its own claim under La. R.S. 46:446, and Texas Medicaid takes an assignment under Tex. Hum. Res. Code § 32.033. Health plans assert contract rights, which Texas limits under Chapter 140 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Working those liens down is a real part of what you end up with. The categories of loss themselves, from medical bills and lost wages to pain and the things you can't do anymore, are laid out in our [settlements and damages](/resources/settlements/) resources.

One more thing about money. If an insurer calls within days with a check, that's a business decision on their part. Cashing it means signing a release. In Louisiana that release is a compromise under La. C.C. art. 3071, and under art. 3080 it bars any later suit on the matter, including treatment nobody has identified yet. Texas enforces a release as a contract for every claim it names. Don't sign anything until the injuries are fully known.

## The mistakes that cost people

- Giving the other side's adjuster a recorded statement before the injuries are understood.
- Settling before treatment plateaus and the long-term prognosis is known.
- Skipping follow-up appointments, which the defense reads as proof the injury wasn't serious.
- Posting about the crash, the treatment, or the weekend.
- Waiting for the criminal case to finish before doing anything on the civil side, while the video gets recorded over.
- Assuming that because the driver was obviously drunk, the case will handle itself. It won't.

## If someone didn't come home

When a crash kills someone, the law separates two claims. The [wrongful death claim](/resources/wrongful-death/) belongs to the family and covers their own losses: companionship, support, funeral costs, grief. The survival claim belongs to the person who died and covers their medical expenses and what they went through before death. Louisiana ranks who may bring them under La. C.C. arts. 2315.1 and 2315.2, spouse and children first, then parents, then siblings, then grandparents. Texas names the spouse, children, and parents under [Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.71.htm), and the estate brings the survival claim under § 71.021. Sorting that out is one of the first quiet tasks in a [Louisiana](/louisiana/wrongful-death-lawyer/) or [Texas](/texas/wrongful-death-lawyer/) wrongful death case, and it does not have to happen in the first week.

## When it's worth talking to someone like us

A fender bender with no injuries doesn't need a lawyer. It's worth a conversation when the injury means surgery, a hospital stay, or ongoing care, or when someone died. When fault is being argued. When the driver's coverage plainly won't reach. When a bar, an employer, a commercial vehicle, or a public agency is anywhere in the facts. Or when an insurer is pushing you to wrap it up fast.

If you want to talk it through, [reach out](/contact-us/). Bring the crash report number, the name of the emergency room, and the declarations page from your own policy. We'll tell you plainly which of the doors above are open and which aren't.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Can I still bring a claim if the drunk driver was never convicted?

Yes. Your civil claim does not depend on the criminal case. A civil jury decides by a preponderance of the evidence, a lower standard than beyond a reasonable doubt, so a driver who beats the DWI charge or pleads it down can still be held responsible for the crash.

### How long do I have to file after a Labor Day drunk driving crash?

In Louisiana, La. C.C. art. 3493.1 gives two years from the crash for injuries on or after July 1, 2024. In Texas, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 gives two years. A claim against a Texas government entity needs written notice within six months under § 101.101, and some Texas cities set shorter periods by charter.

### Can the bar that served the driver be held responsible?

In Texas, yes, when the patron was obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger, under Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02. In Louisiana, La. R.S. 9:2800.1 shields bars and social hosts that serve adults of legal drinking age, so a claim survives only where the person served was under 21, or was forced to drink, or was told the drink had no alcohol.

### Which court hears the case in Northwest Louisiana?

The district court for the parish where the wreck happened, under La. C.C.P. art. 74. Caddo Parish cases go to the First Judicial District Court in Shreveport, Bossier Parish cases to the 26th Judicial District Court in Benton, Webster Parish cases to the 26th in Minden, Lincoln Parish cases to the Third Judicial District Court in Ruston, St. Tammany cases to the 22nd in Covington, and Calcasieu cases to the 14th in Lake Charles.

### Are punitive damages available against a drunk driver?

In Louisiana, La. C.C. art. 2315.4 allows exemplary damages when a driver's intoxication was a cause in fact of the injuries and the conduct showed wanton or reckless disregard for others. In Texas, Chapter 41 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code allows exemplary damages on clear and convincing proof of gross negligence, and the usual cap does not apply when the conduct amounts to intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter.