Fatal wrecks in Shreveport come off I-20 and I-49, the Inner Loop, Youree Drive, Bert Kouns, and Mansfield Road. The injured are taken to Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport on Kings Highway, the Level I trauma center, or to Willis-Knighton or CHRISTUS Highland. The crash report comes from the Shreveport Police Department on city streets, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office on parish roads, or the Louisiana State Police on I-20, I-49, and the other state highways. Caddo death cases can be filed and tried in the First Judicial District Court at the Caddo Parish Courthouse, 501 Texas Street, and Trey Morris Injury Lawyers is across the street at 509 Milam Street.
Results for Louisiana Clients
- $409 MillionWrongful Death
A tragic case where an impaired driver of a commercial vehicle ran a red light, then collided with our client, causing serious bodily injury to the mother and the loss of life of her daughter.
- $4.95 MillionWrongful Death
A hydraulic line exploded at a job site, taking the life of our client's loved one.
- $3.15 MillionWrongful Death
An 18-wheeler caused a fatal collision that took the life of our client's loved one.
- $2 MillionWrongful Death
A fatal collision caused by the at-fault driver took the life of our client's loved one.
- $1.6 MillionWrongful Death
An 18-wheeler made an unsafe lane change and caused a fatal collision; our client's loved one was killed.
- $1.5 MillionWrongful Death
A motorcycle collision took the life of our client's loved one.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; each case is decided on its own facts.
Wrongful Death and Survival Actions Under Louisiana Law
The law that governs the claim is Louisiana law and it is the same in every parish. One death produces two separate claims, and Louisiana keeps them apart on purpose.
The wrongful death action under La. C.C. Art. 2315.2 is the claim the closest surviving relatives bring in their own names for what the death took from them: lost financial support, lost companionship, the services the person provided, and the funeral bill. The law sets the order of who can bring it, and the next section explains it.
The survival action under La. C.C. Art. 2315.1 is the claim your relative could have brought had they lived, passed on after their death: their pain between the injury and the death, their medical bills, and their wages across that stretch. It passes to the same classes of relatives in the same order, and if none of them is living, the representative of your relative’s estate can bring it.
Both go in one petition, on one docket, built from the same evidence, because each reaches money the other cannot touch. We file both in the First Judicial District Court.
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Our 509 Milam St office sits across the street from the First Judicial District Court, where Shreveport injury suits are filed and tried.
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Cases resolved over $1 million
Verdicts and settlements of $1 million or more, won by the same trial team that handles Shreveport cases.
Who Can File: Louisiana’s Priority Order for Wrongful Death Claims
La. C.C. Art. 2315.2 sets a hierarchy, and it is exclusive. Closeness to the person who died is not the test. If a higher class exists, every class under it is shut out.
Class 1, the highest: the surviving spouse and the children. If a spouse or any child survives, no other class may file.
Class 2: the parents, and only when no Class 1 claimant survives. A parent who abandoned the deceased during childhood is treated as not having survived, so that parent cannot file, and if no other parent can, the claim moves to the siblings. Abandonment is presumed when a parent left the child for at least twelve months without providing care or support and without good reason.
Class 3: the siblings, only when no Class 1 or Class 2 claimant survives.
Class 4: the grandparents, only when nobody in the first three classes survives.
This is not an estate claim and it does not run through probate. It belongs to the eligible survivors directly. Survival action claimants follow the same order under La. C.C. Art. 2315.1.
Put every surviving spouse, child, parent, sibling, and grandparent on one list with dates of birth. That list answers the standing question in about ten minutes.
What Damages Does Louisiana Law Allow in Wrongful Death and Survival Actions?
Wrongful Death Damages (La. C.C. Art. 2315.2)
Loss of love and affection covers the relationship itself, and it has no formula. Louisiana courts have awarded widely different amounts depending on how close the relationship was, the ages involved, and how much the claimant depended on the person who died. Loss of services covers the practical work: household labor, childcare, driving, the daily help nobody bills for. Loss of financial support covers the income that person would have earned and contributed over a working life. Funeral and burial expenses can be claimed by a relative who paid them, but only if that relative is one of the people the law allows to bring the wrongful death claim; paying the bill does not, by itself, give anyone else a claim for that cost.
Two caps reach these cases. Medical malpractice claims against a qualified health care provider (one enrolled in Louisiana’s Patient’s Compensation Fund) are capped at $500,000 plus interest and costs under La. R.S. 40:1231.2. Future medical care and related benefits do not count toward that cap. Claims against the state, a parish, a city or another public body are capped at $500,000 per death under La. R.S. 13:5106. That cap leaves out medical care and related benefits, property damage, and lost earnings and support, past and future. Together those cover every money loss the death caused, from wages lost before your relative died to the funeral bills. So the cap limits only the non-money damages, such as loss of love and affection and your relative’s pain and suffering. For an ordinary negligence defendant, which covers most vehicle crashes, Louisiana sets no damages cap at all.
Survival Action Damages (La. C.C. Art. 2315.1)
The survival action carries every kind of damage your relative could have claimed for the injury had they lived, including damage to their own property, such as the vehicle they were in. Three categories usually make up most of it, covering the window between injury and death.
Pain and suffering comes first. The evidence has to show your relative was consciously aware of the suffering during that window. A death at the moment of impact often cannot support it; if they lived hours, days, or weeks in a hospital, nursing notes on pain, level of consciousness, and response to treatment establish it, along with accounts from hospital staff and the family in the room. Second, the medical expenses run up in that window: ambulance, emergency department, surgery, ICU. Third, the wages lost from the date of injury to the date of death.
Start pulling paper this week: the funeral invoice, the last two years of tax returns or W-2s, and itemized hospital bills rather than visit summaries. Those carry the economic side of both claims.
Deadly Crashes and Other Causes of Wrongful Death in Caddo Parish
Fatal motor vehicle crashes drive most of these claims in Shreveport, with car accidents the most frequent cause. I-20 and I-49 carry heavy commercial truck traffic through Caddo Parish, and Louisiana big truck injury lawyers handle the fatal commercial vehicle side across the state. Youree Drive produces a steady run of head-on, intersection, and turning collisions. A fatal crash on any of these roads supports both a wrongful death action and a survival action, and how much the survival action is worth depends on how long your relative lived after the impact.
Plenty of these cases never involve a vehicle. Industrial and oilfield incidents, premises hazards, defective products, and medical negligence at Caddo Parish hospitals all produce fatal injury claims. The governing statutes do not change with the cause; what changes is the evidence that proves fault and who ends up a defendant. The same framework governs any Shreveport injury claim.
If a company vehicle, a machine, or a product was involved, ask in writing this week that it be held as it sits, not repaired, scrapped, or shipped back to the manufacturer. A one-paragraph letter can save the case.
What Shreveport Clients Say
- Adam W.
Trey Morris what a great experience if I ever have to suggest a lawyer's office Morris is my first choice will be suggesting to friends and family
- Jaime C.
I had a great experience with [Trey Morris Injury Lawyers] in Shreveport.Trey Morris and his team really took care of everything from the beginning and kept me informed the whole time. They were easy to work with and always made sure I understood what was going on. I truly felt like they fought for me.
- Dena H.
I would greatly recommend [Trey Morris Injury Lawyers] wholeheartedly, I have known Kristen for years and to know that she has moved to such a wonderful law firm and continues to be such a wonderful person, extremely knowledgeable in her field.I highly recommend her as a paralegal to answer all your questions, as all of the group, couldn't ask for more professional and helpful law firm that puts you first and at ease.
- Kasey L.
Maliyah and Leah have been nothing but great!They are always so pleasant to speak with, very informative, and truly go above and beyond to assist. One of the things I appreciate most is that they always pick up the phone, making communication effortless. It's clear they genuinely have your best interests at heart. I Highly recommend them.
- Caroline M.
[Trey Morris Injury Lawyers] is an amazing personal injury firm.Meghan Nolen and her team are extremely capable, professional and knowledgeable!
- Meyoka A.
I got into an accident and I didn't know who to call.A friend of mines told me to call [Trey Morris Injury Lawyers] and I did. They changed my life and I never felt better about that decision. Thank you all
- Shawanda H.
They was so amazing, communication was awesome!Made sure I was comfortable with my case and I’m grateful for them!
- Catherine H.
[Trey Morris Injury Lawyers]yer has been the biggest help to me, i highly recommend this company.They are all so nice and they treated me like family.
- Beverly T.
My experience with this Injury Law Firm.Was was Truly a 5 Star experience. They give back the community. They are truly a blessing.
- Julianne D.
Liz did a great job.She is an awesome attorney. Very professional office and made my experience very simplistic.
- Karen S.
They have been wonderful!They answered all my questions and kept me up to date during the whole process! I'm so glad I had them to deal with the insurance company! Would absolutely recommend them!
- Debra C.
My husband was a client of Attorney Morris last year and we were very pleased.The most intelligent and friendly staff that would just make you find reasons to call or stop by. Out of my many years of working with and hiring attorneys, I must say that Attorney Tre Morris and staff are just OUTSTANDING!!! If you're looking for a honest hard working attorney with a pleasant staff. Contact Attorney Morris and he's handsome too😉
Testimonials do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Comparative Fault and the 51% Bar in Wrongful Death Cases
Comparative fault is the rule that cuts what you collect by your share of the blame. At 50% or less, your damages come down by that percentage. For accidents on or after January 1, 2026, La. C.C. Art. 2323 is a hard cutoff: if the person who died is found 51% or more at fault for the accident that killed them, the family collects nothing. The wrongful death action and the survival action both go to zero.
That matters in every case where liability is disputed, because it hands the insurer a way to end the claim outright instead of arguing about its value. Defense teams build a story: your relative was speeding, distracted, in the wrong lane. Get a jury or a judge to 51% and the file closes.
Shreveport cases have their own versions of that argument. Lane changes and merges on I-20 and I-49, where a high-speed collision turns on speed and lane position. Youree Drive intersections, where it turns on right-of-way and signal timing. In medical negligence cases, on whether the patient followed instructions or waited too long to come in.
The hard part of a death case is that the one person who could say what he was doing and why is not there to say it, so the fault narrative gets rebuilt out of physical evidence, witnesses, vehicle data, and expert reconstruction.
Crash reports, scene documentation, and the responding agency’s findings are the floor of that record. We bring in accident reconstructionists and human factors experts to build the record before the insurer’s version hardens.
Find out this week which agency responded and get the report number. Everything else runs off that number.
Prescriptive Period: Filing Deadlines in Caddo Parish
The prescriptive period is Louisiana’s word for the filing deadline, what other states call a statute of limitations. Under the current law, the action under La. C.C. Art. 2315.2 prescribes in the longer of one year from the date of death or two years from the day the injury was sustained. The family gets whichever of those two periods expires later. The survival action under La. C.C. Art. 2315.1 runs on the same longer-of rule.
A wrongful death action uses the longer-of calculation, so the deadline turns on the date of death and the date of injury together. A medical-malpractice wrongful death action is the exception and prescribes one year from the date of death. Have a lawyer run the dates in your case rather than assuming which rule applies.
Run both periods and compare them. Injury in January 2025, death in March 2025: one year from death expires in March 2026, two years from injury expires in January 2027, and January 2027 controls because it falls later.
Louisiana courts hold this deadline strictly. Grief does not stop the clock. Neither does an open negotiation with an adjuster, however friendly the calls sound.
Put both dates on a calendar this week, mark both deadlines, and set a reminder ninety days ahead of the earlier one, while there is still room to investigate.
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The lawyers who work your file. Every Shreveport case is handled by the firm's own trial attorneys.
What Happens When Trey Morris Injury Lawyers Takes a Wrongful Death Case
Standing comes first. Before anyone signs anything, we work out who holds statutory standing under La. C.C. Art. 2315.2 and La. C.C. Art. 2315.1, which of the two actions apply, and whether a higher-priority class exists that would bar your claim. Where standing is unclear, we say so plainly. If several people in one class want to bring it, we explain how they share what the case collects and coordinate one representation.
We pull the crash report and the coroner’s file. Once the facts give an honest basis for a claim, we send preservation letters that hold the vehicles as they sit. Scene documentation, witness names, and physical evidence all move or disappear in the first days.
On the medical side, we obtain the full treatment record from whichever hospital treated your relative: emergency department, surgery, ICU, and the discharge or the death summary. Those pages fix the injury timeline, the medical expenses, and the conscious-awareness question the survival action turns on.
For economic dependency we use a vocational expert and an economist to put a present value on lost financial support, calculated separately for each claimant. A dependent child, a spouse, and a dependent parent each come out at a different number.
Trey Morris Injury Lawyers has handled wrongful death cases in the First Judicial District Court for over 20 years. Our attorneys hold AV Preeminent ratings and have been selected for Super Lawyers. Our clients have left 2,815 five-star Google reviews, and those describe what the process was actually like rather than what we say it will be. Our case results are public, and you should read them before you decide who to call.
Call the office at 509 Milam Street with the date of the injury, the date of death, and the agency that responded, and we will pull the report and run both deadlines.