Debt collectors in Louisiana

Credit cards: La. Civ. Code art. 3494(4) gives 3 years to 'an action on an open account' and art. 3494(3) to 'an action on money lent'; Louisiana practice treats credit card debt as one of these, so 3 years either way. A creditor could argue a written cardholder agreement is a conventional obligation subject to the 10-year personal-action period (art. 3499), but no authority adopting that for credit cards was found; no case name was confirmed this session.

Payments and acknowledgments: (a) While prescription is running: art. 3464 (text confirmed) - prescription is interrupted 'when one acknowledges the right of the person against whom he had commenced to prescribe', and art. 3466 restarts the full period from the interruption. Louisiana jurisprudence treats acknowledgment as express or tacit, and a part payment is generally a tacit acknowledgment (case law not re-verified). (b) After prescription has run there is nothing to interrupt; the debtor can only renounce accrued prescription (arts. 3449-3450, not re-read), and courts require clear intent, so a small payment alone is not reliably a renunciation. No consumer-debt or debt-buyer revival statute was checked.

Judgments: La. Civ. Code art. 3501 (text confirmed): a money judgment of a Louisiana trial court prescribes 10 years from signing (or from finality if appealed), and may be revived before it prescribes; revival (La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2031, not re-read) starts a new 10-year period and can be repeated.

Other rules: Article text (3494, 3498, 3499, 3501, 3464, 3466) was read on LSU Law Center's Louisiana Civil Code Online, which reflects amendments through at least Acts 2024, No. 423 (eff. July 1, 2024, which repealed art. 3492 and moved delictual actions to a 2-year period - irrelevant to contract debt). The official legis.la.gov site refused connections, so no official-site confirmation. Art. 3498: actions on instruments and promissory notes, 'whether negotiable or not', prescribe in 5 years from when payment is exigible. Louisiana uses 'prescription' rather than 'statute of limitations'. Not checked: any Louisiana statute barring suits on, or revival of, prescribed consumer debt (revival_barred_by_statute and time_barred_suit_banned left null); federal Reg F still bars FDCPA debt collectors from suing on time-barred debt.

• open account: La. Civ. Code art. 3494 (3 yrs: open account; money lent); art. 3495 (commencement)
• written contract: La. Civ. Code art. 3499 (10 yrs, personal actions)
• oral contract: La. Civ. Code art. 3499
• promissory note: La. Civ. Code art. 3498 (5 yrs, instruments and promissory notes, negotiable or not)
• judgment: La. Civ. Code art. 3501; La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2031
• payment restarts: La. Civ. Code arts. 3464, 3466; renunciation arts. 3449-3450 (not re-read)

Sources: lcco.law.lsu.edu · lcco.law.lsu.edu · lcco.law.lsu.edu