Louisiana gives creditors three years to sue on an open account or money lent, and it does not use the statute of limitations framework the other forty-nine states use. Louisiana is a civil law jurisdiction. Its rules come from the Civil Code, the concept is called liberative prescription, and the differences are not merely vocabulary. They change what happens to the debt, what restarts the clock, and what a court may do on its own.
The periods, and where each one is written
| What is being collected | Prescriptive period | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Open account | 3 years | La. Civ. Code art. 3494(4) |
| Money lent | 3 years | La. Civ. Code art. 3494(3) |
| Compensation for services, salaries, wages, commissions | 3 years | La. Civ. Code art. 3494(1) |
| Instruments and promissory notes, negotiable or not | 5 years | La. Civ. Code art. 3498 |
| Personal action not otherwise provided for | 10 years | La. Civ. Code art. 3499 |
| Money judgment of a Louisiana court | 10 years, revivable | La. Civ. Code art. 3501 |
Note the structure, which is the reverse of most states: three years applies only if the claim fits one of the categories art. 3494 names. Anything else is a personal action and gets ten. Article 3457 states the governing principle plainly: “There is no prescription other than that established by legislation.”
Louisiana also departs from the uniform commercial code text. Its version of UCC § 3-118 is headed “Prescription” rather than “Statute of limitations,” and it sets five years for a note payable at a definite time where most states set six.
Three years or ten? The question the Code leaves open
No Louisiana statute names credit cards, revolving credit, or consumer credit in a prescription context. Searches of the Louisiana laws for those terms return nothing usable; the only hits for “credit card” alongside “prescription” are insurance and public records provisions using the word in its medical sense.
What this means in practice: whether a credit card balance is an “open account” or “money lent” under art. 3494, both three years, or falls through to art. 3499’s ten years, is not answered by the Code. That is a seven-year swing, the widest unresolved gap of any state we have covered. There is also a trap: Louisiana does have a statutory definition of “open account” at R.S. 9:2781(D), but its own scope clause limits it to that section and two Code of Civil Procedure articles, so it does not define the term for art. 3494.
When prescription begins
Article 3495 sets the trigger for the three-year categories, and it is not the common-law accrual test:
This prescription commences to run from the day payment is exigible. It accrues as to past due payments even if there is a continuation of labor, supplies, or other services.
Exigible means legally demandable. The second sentence closes off an argument that would work elsewhere: an ongoing relationship does not hold the clock. Each past-due payment prescribes on its own schedule even while the account continues. Article 3498 uses the same exigibility trigger for instruments.
Interruption, and why it is stronger than tolling
Louisiana splits into two mechanisms that common-law states collapse into the single word “tolling,” and the difference is substantial.
Interruption wipes the clock. Article 3466: “If prescription is interrupted, the time that has run is not counted. Prescription commences to run anew from the last day of interruption.” Suspension merely pauses it. Article 3472: “The period of suspension is not counted toward accrual of prescription. Prescription commences to run again upon the termination of the period of suspension.”
Then comes the article that matters most to anyone with an old Louisiana debt. Article 3464 reads, in its entirety:
Prescription is interrupted when one acknowledges the right of the person against whom he had commenced to prescribe.
That is the whole article, and it contains no writing requirement, no signature requirement, and no form requirement of any kind. Nearly every common-law state in this project demands a signed writing before an acknowledgment can restart the clock. Louisiana’s Civil Code demands nothing.
The omission looks deliberate rather than accidental, because the legislature imposed a writing requirement in closely related places when it wanted one. The Mineral Code provides that an acknowledgment interrupting prescription of nonuse “must be in writing.” Article 3450 requires writing for renunciation only “with respect to immovables.” And an extension of prescription under art. 3505.1 “must be express and in writing.” Article 3464 has none of that.
One boundary worth stating: the article is silent on form, which is verified, but it does not affirmatively say a verbal or partial-payment acknowledgment qualifies. What counts as an acknowledgment is worked out in Louisiana jurisprudence, which this page does not attempt to summarize. The safe reading of the Code is that no writing is required, not that any particular act suffices.
What a prescribed debt becomes: a natural obligation
This is where Louisiana differs most from every other state covered here. A prescribed debt does not simply become unenforceable. The Civil Code reclassifies it. Article 1762 lists the circumstances giving rise to a natural obligation, and the first one is:
When a civil obligation has been extinguished by prescription or discharged in bankruptcy.
Article 1761 then states what a natural obligation is worth: “A natural obligation is not enforceable by judicial action. Nevertheless, whatever has been freely performed in compliance with a natural obligation may not be reclaimed.” And it adds that “a contract made for the performance of a natural obligation is onerous.”
Three consequences follow directly from that text. A creditor cannot obtain a judgment. If you voluntarily pay a prescribed Louisiana debt, you cannot get the money back. And a new agreement to pay a prescribed debt is treated as a supported, enforceable contract rather than an empty promise, which is the civil law’s counterpart to revival by new promise.
One honest caveat. The Code is not internally consistent in how it describes the effect. Article 3447 calls liberative prescription “a mode of barring of actions,” which is remedy-barring language, while art. 1762 says the civil obligation “has been extinguished by prescription.” We found no article reconciling the two, so we quote both rather than declaring which one states Louisiana’s position.
The protection Louisiana gives against debt buyers
Louisiana has no statute prohibiting suit on a prescribed debt, no prohibition on renunciation, and no required disclosure. Searches for “prescribed debt,” “consumer debt,” and “debt buyer” return nothing, and the collection agency registration statute contains no prescription provision.
What Louisiana does have, added in 2021, is a targeted rule aimed squarely at purchased debt. Identical language appears in Code of Civil Procedure arts. 1702(D), 4904(D), and 4921(C), covering district, parish and city, and justice of the peace courts:
When the demand is based upon a right acquired by assignment in an open account, promissory note, or other negotiable instrument, the court may raise an objection of prescription before entering a default judgment if the grounds for the objection appear from the pleadings or from the evidence submitted by the plaintiff. If the court raises an objection of prescription, it shall not enter the default judgment unless the plaintiff presents prima facie proof that the action is not barred by prescription.
Read the scope precisely. It is permissive rather than mandatory, it reaches only debt acquired by assignment, meaning debt buyers rather than original creditors, and it operates only at the default judgment stage. But once a court raises it, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to prove the claim is not prescribed. That is meaningful in a category of case that overwhelmingly ends in default.
How often Louisiana consumers report collection problems
Louisiana consumers filed 8,089 debt collection complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the 12 months ending August 26, 2026, which is 2.5% of the 323,584 filed nationwide and ranks 11th among reporting states, high for its population.
Of those, 1,724, or 21% of the Louisiana total, were categorized as a collector taking or threatening to take negative or legal action, against 25% nationally.
These are raw complaint counts, not rates. They are not adjusted for population, and a complaint is an allegation the CFPB has published, not a finding that a company broke the law. The figures refresh weekly from the CFPB’s public database.
If you are sued on a debt you believe is prescribed
The terminology matters here. In Louisiana you raise prescription through a peremptory exception, not a motion to dismiss and not an affirmative defense. Code of Civil Procedure art. 927(A)(1) lists prescription first among the objections raised that way.
Two procedural points favor defendants. Under art. 928(B), the peremptory exception “may be pleaded at any stage of the proceeding in the trial court prior to a submission of the case for a decision,” so unlike most states you are not confined to raising it in your answer. And the default judgment articles above mean a court may notice the problem itself in an assigned-debt case.
The general rule still holds otherwise: art. 3452 provides that “prescription must be pleaded” and that courts may not supply it except as legislation provides. So showing up remains necessary. Court deadlines are unforgiving, so this is a point at which speaking with a Louisiana attorney or a legal aid organization is worth the call.
How Louisiana compares
Three states worth reading next to Louisiana, because each shares or inverts one of its rules:
- Mississippi: three years, and the obligation does not survive as an enforceable claim
- South Carolina: three years, at the short end
- Wisconsin: the right itself is extinguished rather than the remedy barred
The full comparison table covers every state we have published.
Sources and verification
Articles quoted from the Louisiana Laws published by the Louisiana State Legislature. Civil Code arts. 1760, 1761, 1762, 3445, 3447, 3449 through 3453, 3456 through 3472.1, 3494, 3495, 3498, 3499, 3501, 3505 through 3505.4, and 3549; Code of Civil Procedure arts. 927, 928, 929, 1702, 4904, and 4921; and R.S. 9:2781, 9:3534.1, 9:5807, 10:3-118, and 31:54. The default judgment provisions were added by Acts 2021, No. 259 and Acts 2021, No. 174. The Legislature’s site states that “laws have been updated through the 2025 First Extraordinary Session,” though several articles we retrieved carry amendments from Acts 2025, No. 250, so the text appears at least as current as that statement claims; we quote the site’s own wording rather than assert a date it does not assert. The site also states that its provisions “are not official or authoritative.” Text retrieved August 26, 2026. Complaint data: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, filtered to the Debt collection product and the Louisiana state field over a rolling 12-month window, re-queried weekly by this site. Our data sources and update policy lists every figure on this site that refreshes automatically and how often.
This page explains what the Louisiana Civil Code says. It is general information, not legal advice. It does not resolve whether a credit card balance is an open account under art. 3494 or a personal action under art. 3499, or what conduct counts as an acknowledgment under art. 3464, because the Code does not answer either question.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a debt collector pursue an old debt in Louisiana?
Louisiana uses liberative prescription rather than a statute of limitations. An action on an open account or on money lent prescribes in three years under Civil Code art. 3494, and prescription runs from the day payment is exigible under art. 3495. A promissory note prescribes in five years under art. 3498, and a personal action not otherwise provided for prescribes in ten years under art. 3499.
Does an acknowledgment have to be in writing in Louisiana?
No. Article 3464 provides simply that “prescription is interrupted when one acknowledges the right of the person against whom he had commenced to prescribe,” and imposes no writing or signature requirement. That differs from most states, whose revival statutes require a signed writing. What conduct counts as an acknowledgment is a question the Code does not answer.
What happens to a debt in Louisiana once prescription runs?
It becomes a natural obligation. Civil Code art. 1762 lists a civil obligation extinguished by prescription as an example, and art. 1761 provides that a natural obligation “is not enforceable by judicial action” but that “whatever has been freely performed in compliance with a natural obligation may not be reclaimed.” So a creditor cannot obtain a judgment, and a voluntary payment cannot be recovered.
Can a Louisiana court raise prescription on its own?
Generally no, but there is an exception for purchased debt. Article 3452 provides that prescription must be pleaded and that courts may not supply it except as legislation provides. Code of Civil Procedure arts. 1702(D), 4904(D), and 4921(C) allow a court to raise the objection before entering a default judgment where the claim was acquired by assignment and the grounds appear from the plaintiff’s own filings.