Licensed in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas
Licensed in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas
Compensation in a Louisiana 18-wheeler case falls into two broad groups. Economic damages cover losses with a receipt or a calculation behind them, and non-economic damages cover harm that is real but has no invoice. What a particular person may recover depends on the facts, on what is documented, and on the fault percentages assigned.
Working out which categories apply is less about knowing a list than about matching the list against your own situation. Some categories are obvious within days, and others only become clear once treatment has run its course.
At Lukov Injury Law, we work through the categories methodically rather than assuming which ones fit.
Each category is set out below, with the documentation that supports it. Contact us today to talk through what applies to your situation.
Economic damages are the losses that can be tied to a number.
The categories that can apply:
The last two look forward rather than back, which is why they cannot be settled early. Neither can be quantified before the medical picture is reasonably clear.
These are the losses with no bill attached to them.
Pain and suffering is the category people recognize, and it sits alongside several others:
These are harder to document precisely because there is no bill to point at. Treatment records, testimony, and the consistency of the account over time carry the weight instead.
Whether any particular category applies, and what it may be worth, depends on the facts and on how the claim is presented. No two situations produce the same answer.
Each damages category rests on its own documentation:
Photographs taken at the scene record conditions and details that a later estimate does not capture.
Non-economic categories have no equivalent paper trail, so they lean on the medical record and on consistency. Treatment attended as scheduled, symptoms described the same way to different providers, and a documented account of how daily life changed all carry weight that a later description cannot match.
The practical point is that this accumulates during treatment rather than at the end of it. Gaps in a record are difficult to fill retrospectively.
The categories themselves are not unique to truck claims. What differs is the evidence available to establish fault, which affects everything downstream.
A truck operates under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which generate a record set that a passenger vehicle does not. Duty-status records are retained for not less than 6 months under 49 CFR 395.8(k)(1), driver vehicle inspection reports for 3 months under 396.11, and maintenance records for 1 year plus 6 months after the vehicle leaves the carrier under 396.3(c).
Those records bear on fault rather than on damages directly. Their relevance to compensation is indirect but substantial, because Louisiana divides recovery by fault percentage.
This is the step that turns a damages figure into an actual recovery.
Under Civil Code article 2323 as amended by Act 15 of 2025, effective January 1, 2026, a person found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing, and a lower share reduces the award proportionally. A person assessed at 30 percent fault, for example, would recover 70 percent of their damages.
Incidents before that date fall under the older pure comparative fault system, where a reduced recovery remained available regardless of the share carried.
Louisiana does not impose a general cap on damages in ordinary personal injury claims. Medical malpractice is governed separately, and claims against governmental entities carry their own limits. That does not mean any figure is available, because every category still has to be documented and every fault percentage still applies.
Timing affects the answer, and it cuts in two directions.
Assessing too early risks missing categories that have not appeared yet. Future medical costs and loss of earning capacity cannot be quantified before the medical picture is reasonably settled.
Assessing too late risks the fault evidence. Louisiana sets a two-year prescriptive period for most personal injury claims from the day the injury is sustained, but the federal records that establish fault expire well inside that window, the shortest at three months.
A written request does not by itself obligate a carrier in Louisiana to hold on to those records, so the fault side of the claim runs on a shorter clock than the damages side.
What is recoverable in a Louisiana 18-wheeler crash claim is settled by the categories above and by the fault percentage applied to them.
The categories are the same for everyone, but which ones fit and what supports them are particular to each situation. At Lukov Injury Law, we go through them against your own facts rather than handing over a list.
Abby Lukov goes through the categories with you directly, and the first conversation costs nothing. Call us today at 504-315-5056 to talk through your injuries and what may be recoverable.
Disclaimer: This article provides general information and should not be treated as legal advice. Laws change over time, and outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this article or contacting Lukov Injury Law LLC. For advice about your situation, contact a qualified attorney. Time limits apply to legal claims, so do not delay in seeking legal help.
Recovery falls into economic damages, covering medical expenses, lost wages, future medical costs, loss of earning capacity, and property damage, and non-economic damages, covering pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring or disfigurement, and loss of consortium. Which categories apply depends on the facts.
Louisiana does not impose a general cap on damages in ordinary personal injury claims. Medical malpractice is governed separately, and claims against governmental entities carry their own limits. The absence of a cap does not mean any figure is available, because each category still has to be documented and fault percentages can reduce the recovery.
Louisiana divides recovery by fault percentage. Under Civil Code article 2323 as amended by Act 15 of 2025, effective January 1, 2026, a person found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing, while a lower share reduces the recovery proportionally. Incidents before January 1, 2026 remain under the older pure comparative fault system.
Lost wages cover income already missed because of the injury. Loss of earning capacity looks forward and addresses a reduced ability to earn going forward. This can apply even to someone who has returned to work if the injury limits what they are able to do.
Pain and suffering is one of the recognized non-economic categories in Louisiana, alongside mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and disfigurement. Whether it applies and what it may be worth depends on the injuries, medical record, and how the claim is presented, so it should be assessed based on the individual facts.
Categories such as future medical costs and loss of earning capacity cannot be quantified before the medical picture is reasonably settled. Resolving a claim early can therefore mean resolving it without complete figures for those damages. That is a decision to make with advice based on the individual medical situation.
Not directly. Federal trucking records and regulations primarily bear on fault rather than damages. Their effect on compensation is indirect but substantial because Louisiana reduces recovery by the percentage of fault assigned. Records such as duty-status logs and maintenance files can therefore be important to the fault argument.
Yes. Louisiana reduces the award by the percentage of fault assigned, and that reduction applies across the damages categories rather than against only one category. For example, a person assessed at 30 percent fault would recover 70 percent of the total award, including economic and non-economic damages.
