Legal glossary
Legal terms, in plain English
Insurance companies and courts use a lot of unfamiliar words. This glossary explains the terms you’re most likely to hear after an injury, including some that are unique to Louisiana law.
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Glossary A–Z
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Search for a word or jump to a letter. These definitions are general information, not legal advice for your situation.
57 terms
A
- Adjuster
- An insurance company employee who investigates a claim and decides what the company will offer. The adjuster works for the insurance company, not for you.
- Affidavit
- A written statement of facts that the person signs under oath.
- Appeal
- A request asking a higher court to review a trial court’s decision for legal errors.
B
- Bodily injury liability coverage
- The part of an auto policy that pays for injuries the policyholder causes to other people, up to the policy limits.
- Burden of proof
- The duty to prove your case. In most civil injury cases, you must show that your version of the facts is more likely true than not.
C
- Causation
- The link between someone’s conduct and your injury. To recover damages, you must show the other party’s fault caused your harm.
- Comparative fault
- Louisiana’s system for dividing fault among everyone involved, including the injured person. Your recovery is reduced by your share of fault, and for accidents on or after January 1, 2026, you can’t recover if you’re found 51% or more at fault.
- Contingency fee
- A fee arrangement where the lawyer is paid a percentage of the money recovered in the case instead of by the hour.
D
- Damages
- Money awarded to make up for losses caused by an injury. See general damages and special damages.
- Defendant
- The person or company being sued.
- Delictual action
- Louisiana’s term for a lawsuit over a wrongful act that causes harm, similar to a tort claim in other states.
- Deposition
- Sworn testimony given before trial, outside of court, and recorded by a court reporter.
- Discovery
- The pretrial process where each side gathers information from the other, including documents, written questions and depositions.
- Duty of care
- The legal obligation to act with reasonable care to avoid harming others, like a driver’s duty to follow traffic laws.
E
- Exemplary damages
- Louisiana’s term for punitive damages, which punish especially wrongful conduct. Louisiana allows them only in limited situations set by law, such as injuries caused by a drunk driver.
- Expert witness
- Someone with special knowledge, like a doctor or accident reconstructionist, who testifies to help explain technical issues.
G
- General damages
- Losses that don’t come with a receipt, such as pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life.
I
- Independent medical examination (IME)
- An exam by a doctor chosen by the insurance company or ordered in a workers’ comp case, rather than by your own treating doctor.
- Interrogatories
- Written questions one side sends the other during discovery, which must be answered under oath.
J
- Jones Act
- A federal law that lets seamen sue their employer when the employer’s negligence contributes to an injury.
- Judgment
- The court’s final decision in a case, including any money awarded.
L
- LHWCA
- The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, a federal law that provides workers’ compensation benefits to many maritime workers who aren’t seamen, such as dock and shipyard workers.
- Liability
- Legal responsibility for an injury or loss.
- Lien
- A legal claim against your settlement for money owed, such as to a health insurer or medical provider that paid for your treatment.
- Loss of consortium
- Damages for the harm an injury causes to a family relationship, such as the loss of companionship, support or affection.
- Lost earning capacity
- Damages for your reduced ability to earn money in the future because of an injury.
- Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA)
- The Louisiana law that governs claims against manufacturers for products that are unreasonably dangerous because of how they were made or designed, an inadequate warning or a broken express warranty.
M
- Maintenance and cure
- Benefits a seaman’s employer owes after an injury or illness in the service of a vessel: daily living expenses (maintenance) and medical care (cure), until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement.
- Maximum medical improvement (MMI)
- The point where your condition has stabilized and more treatment isn’t expected to make it better.
- Mediation
- A meeting where a neutral person helps both sides try to reach a settlement. The mediator can’t force an agreement.
- Medical payments coverage (MedPay)
- Optional auto insurance that pays medical bills for you and your passengers, no matter who was at fault.
- Medical review panel
- In Louisiana, a panel of three health care providers and an attorney chair that reviews most malpractice claims against qualified providers before a lawsuit can be filed.
- Merchant liability
- Louisiana’s rules for injuries in stores and restaurants. The injured person must show the business created the hazard or knew or should have known about it, and failed to use reasonable care.
- Mitigation of damages
- Your duty to take reasonable steps to limit your losses, like following your doctor’s treatment plan.
N
- Negligence
- Failing to use the care a reasonable person would use in the same situation.
P
- Pain and suffering
- General damages for the physical pain and emotional distress caused by an injury.
- Petition
- Louisiana’s name for the document that starts a lawsuit, called a complaint in many other states.
- Plaintiff
- The person who files the lawsuit.
- Premises liability
- The responsibility property owners and businesses have for injuries caused by dangerous conditions on their property.
- Prescription
- Louisiana’s term for a statute of limitations. For most injury claims arising on or after July 1, 2024, you have two years to file suit. Some claims, like medical malpractice, have different deadlines.
Q
- Quantum
- The dollar value of the damages in a case.
R
- Recorded statement
- A recorded interview an insurance adjuster asks for after an accident. What you say can be used to limit your claim, so talk to a lawyer first.
- Release
- A document you sign when you settle that ends your right to make further claims about the accident.
S
- Settlement
- An agreement to resolve a claim without a trial, usually in exchange for payment and a signed release.
- Special damages
- Losses with a dollar amount you can prove, like medical bills and lost wages.
- Spoliation
- The destruction or loss of evidence. If evidence is destroyed after a party knew it mattered, a court may impose penalties.
- Standard of care
- The level of care a reasonably careful professional would provide in the same situation. It’s used to judge medical malpractice claims.
- Statute of limitations
- The deadline to file a lawsuit. In Louisiana, it’s called prescription.
- Subrogation
- The right of an insurer that paid your bills to be repaid out of your recovery.
- Survival action
- A claim for the losses a person suffered before death, brought by certain family members after the person dies.
T
- Tort
- A civil wrong that causes harm and allows the injured person to recover damages. Louisiana law usually calls it a delict.
U
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM) coverage
- Auto insurance that pays for your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough.
- Unseaworthiness
- A vessel owner’s failure to keep a ship and its equipment reasonably fit for their intended use. Injured seamen can bring claims based on it.
V
- Venue
- The parish where a lawsuit is filed.
- Verdict
- The decision a jury, or a judge without a jury, reaches at the end of a trial.
W
- Workers’ compensation
- A system that pays medical care and part of lost wages for workers hurt on the job, usually without having to prove anyone was at fault.
- Wrongful death
- A claim certain family members bring for their own losses when a loved one dies because of someone else’s fault.
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