Statute of Limitations on Debt in Louisiana: 3 Years for Open Accounts, 5 for Notes, 10 for Judgments

Louisiana’s civil law uses its own word for the deadline to sue: liberative prescription . For everyday debts, three periods matter most: 3 years for open accounts and money lent [1], 5 years for promissory notes [2], and 10 years for other personal actions [3]. Judgments last 10 years and can be revived again and again [6].

Which period applies to your debt

The category decides the deadline.

• Open accounts have 3 years [1].
• Money lent also has 3 years [1].
• Compensation for services, including professional fees, has 3 years [1].
• Promissory notes and other instruments, negotiable or not, have 5 years, counted from the day payment could be demanded [2].
• Personal actions not given a different period by law have 10 years [3].

Whether a particular credit card, medical bill or loan counts as an open account, money lent or a note depends on its terms. If you’re sued on an old debt, that classification is often the main fight, so it’s worth a lawyer’s look.

What can restart the clock

Louisiana law says prescription is interrupted when you acknowledge the creditor’s right [4]. Once it’s interrupted, the time already run doesn’t count, and prescription starts over from the last day of the interruption [5]. A lawsuit filed in a proper court also interrupts it [12].

Even after prescription has run, it can be renounced. Renunciation can be express, or tacit, meaning your conduct suggests you gave up the defense [11]. Prescription can only be renounced after it has accrued [10].

What “time-barred” means

A debt is time-barred once the prescriptive period has run. Collectors can still ask you to pay, but they can’t sue or threaten to sue you over it [9].

If you’re sued anyway, you generally must raise the deadline yourself [9]. Louisiana adds one protection: in parish and city courts, when a debt buyer seeks a default judgment on an assigned open account or note, the court can raise prescription on its own and refuse the default unless the buyer shows the claim isn’t too old [7]. Don’t count on that, though. Answer the suit and raise prescription.

Judgments last much longer

A money judgment from a Louisiana court prescribes 10 years after it’s signed, or 10 years after it becomes final if there’s an appeal [6]. Before that happens, the creditor can revive it, and each revival starts a new 10-year period. There’s no limit on how many times a judgment can be revived [6].

A judgment from another state can be enforced here for 10 years, but not if it’s already barred or unenforceable where it was entered [6].

The credit report clock is different

How long a debt can appear on your credit report is a federal rule, separate from Louisiana’s prescription. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, collection accounts and charged-off accounts generally can’t be reported once they’re more than seven years old, with the seven years starting 180 days after the delinquency began [8]. A debt can drop off your report while it’s still collectible in court, or stay on your report after prescription has run.

Accurate information can be reported for that full period. If an account is wrong, or still listed after the reporting period ends, you can dispute it with the credit bureaus for free. For more on the federal timelines, see BestAmerica’s guide to how long negative items stay on a credit report.

Where to get help

• Legal aid: Louisiana’s legal aid programs can help eligible people answer a debt lawsuit.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov): takes complaints about debt collectors [9].
• A consumer attorney: worth a call if you’re sued on an old account, especially by a debt buyer.