If you or a family member was treated at the burn center at University Medical Center New Orleans, your medical records document the full severity of your injuries. But you must act fast: Louisiana has the shortest personal injury deadline in the nation — just one year from the date of injury. The clock is already running.
The burn center at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMC) is the leading burn treatment program for southeast Louisiana and a critical resource for the broader Gulf South. Operated by LCMC Health and supported by academic partners including LSU Health and Tulane, UMC is the successor to the historic Charity Hospital trauma tradition and serves as the region's principal safety-net and academic medical center.
The center delivers the full spectrum of acute burn care: resuscitation and critical care management of massive burns, serial debridement and skin grafting, treatment of complex inhalation injuries, and multidisciplinary reconstruction and rehabilitation. Its academic affiliations produce thorough, standardized clinical documentation — precisely the kind of record that establishes injury severity clearly in a legal claim.
New Orleans and the surrounding parishes sit at the heart of one of the most industrially hazardous regions in the country: the Mississippi River petrochemical corridor, the Port of New Orleans, offshore Gulf energy operations, and the maritime and shipbuilding trades. Many burns treated at UMC arise from these high-hazard industries and involve complex third-party and federal maritime liability — but under Louisiana law, that entire claim can vanish if you wait more than one year.
Louisiana's economy runs on energy, chemicals, and the water. The stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans — often called "River Road" or the petrochemical corridor — hosts one of the densest concentrations of refineries and chemical plants in the Western Hemisphere. Add the Port of New Orleans, the offshore oil and gas fields of the Gulf, and the shipbuilding and marine-services trades, and the result is a burn hazard profile that is both severe and legally complex.
When a burn happens in this environment, liability rarely stops at the direct employer. Equipment manufacturers, chemical suppliers, vessel owners, platform operators, and contractors are frequently responsible — but Louisiana's one-year prescriptive period gives you almost no margin to investigate and file.
Louisiana's workers' compensation law (La. R.S. 23:1031 et seq.) is mandatory for most employers and is the exclusive remedy against your direct employer. It pays medical expenses and a portion of lost wages, but it does not compensate pain and suffering, emotional distress, or the full extent of permanent disfigurement — and it does not limit your right to pursue a negligent third party.
Louisiana law preserves civil claims against parties whose conduct caused or contributed to your burn, including:
Louisiana's prescriptive period for personal injury — the civil-law equivalent of a statute of limitations — is one year from the date of injury under La. Civ. Code art. 3492. This is the shortest personal injury deadline in the United States. Miss it by a single day and your claim is gone permanently. Because burn cases require investigation, evidence preservation, and expert work — all while you are recovering — you cannot afford to wait until you feel "better" or until the anniversary of your injury approaches. Contact an attorney immediately.
Documentation from an academically affiliated burn center is among the most persuasive evidence in a burn case. Records from the UMC burn center typically include:
Your attorney will obtain these records with your written authorization and build your damages case around them. An experienced Louisiana burn injury attorney knows how to combine UMC's clinical documentation with the state's petrochemical and maritime liability frameworks — and how to move fast enough to protect your claim within the one-year window.
If your burn was caused by someone else's negligence — a refinery or chemical-plant failure, an offshore rig incident, defective equipment, a chemical supplier's failure to warn, or a dangerous property — you likely have a viable claim. Louisiana lets burn victims pursue third-party civil claims alongside workers' compensation, and offshore and maritime workers may also have Jones Act, LHWCA, or OCSLA rights. Treatment at a verified regional burn center is itself strong evidence of injury severity. Because Louisiana gives you only one year, call us or submit the form above right away — no fee unless you win.
Just one year. Louisiana's prescriptive period for personal injury is one year from the date of injury under La. Civ. Code art. 3492 — the shortest deadline in the country. Most states give two or three years; Louisiana gives one. Miss it and your claim is permanently barred. Certain maritime and federal claims run on their own timelines, but you should never rely on that. Contact an attorney immediately — do not wait until you feel recovered.
Yes. Under HIPAA you have the right to copies of your complete medical records from University Medical Center New Orleans. You can submit a written authorization to the hospital's medical records department, or authorize your attorney to request the records for you — usually the fastest and most efficient approach when a one-year deadline is running.
Louisiana gives you just one year. Get a free case review now from a burn injury attorney familiar with New Orleans and the Gulf South.
Louisiana's 1-year prescriptive period is the shortest personal injury deadline in the country. Evidence disappears and the clock never stops. Get your free review today and protect your rights before it's too late.
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