Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5109

  • Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • political subdivision: means :

    (1)  Any parish, municipality, special district, school board, sheriff, public board, institution, department, commission, district, corporation, agency, authority, or an agency or subdivision of any of these, and other public or governmental body of any kind which is not a state agency. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5102

  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • state agency: means any board, commission, department, agency, special district, authority, or other entity of the state and, as used in La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5102
  • suit: means civil actions as defined in Code of Civil Procedure Art. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5102
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.

A.  In any suit filed against the state of Louisiana, a state officer, a state agency, a local public official or a political subdivision, the defendant, or the proper representative thereof, upon the advice and with the concurrence of the attorney general, district attorney, parish attorney, city attorney, or other proper official, as the case may be, may compromise and settle the claims presented in any such suit.  

B.(1)  If a judgment is rendered by a trial or appellate court or the supreme court against the state or a state agency in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars or more, and the attorney general is not an attorney of record in the suit, the clerk of the court shall also mail a notice of judgment to the attorney general, through the chief of the civil division, in accordance with Code of Civil Procedure Articles 1913, 2166, or 2167, as appropriate.  

(2)  Any judgment rendered in any suit filed against the state, a state agency, or a political subdivision, or any compromise reached in favor of the plaintiff or plaintiffs in any such suit shall be exigible, payable, and paid only out of funds appropriated for that purpose by the legislature, if the suit was filed against the state or a state agency, or out of funds appropriated for that purpose by the named political subdivision, if the suit was filed against a political subdivision.  

C.  The governing authority of a parish or municipality, upon the advice and the concurrence of the district attorney, parish attorney, or city attorney of that parish or municipality or proper official as the case may be, may compromise or settle any claim against that parish or municipality without the necessity for the filing of a suit against the parish or municipality in the matter.  Any such compromise settlement shall be exigible, payable, and paid only out of funds appropriated for that purpose by the governing authority of that parish or municipality.  No claim in excess of ten thousand dollars may be compromised or settled as provided herein before ten days have elapsed after the publication of such proposed compromise or settlement in the official journal of the appropriate political subdivision.  

Acts 1975, No. 434, §1.  Amended by Acts 1976, No. 372, §1; Acts 1977, No. 704, §1; Acts 1982, No. 23, §1; Acts 1985, No. 452, §1; Acts 1987, No. 860, §1; Acts 1988, No. 448, §1, eff. July 1, 1988; Acts 1992, No. 77, §1, eff. June 5, 1992.