Louisiana Work Injury Lawyer
The goal in a Louisiana work injury case is simple to state and hard to reach: authorized medical care that actually gets approved, weekly checks that arrive on time and stay in place, and a resolution that reflects what the injury has done to your ability to earn a living. Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation firm that helps injured workers across Louisiana and Mississippi pursue exactly that, representing clients in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, and communities throughout South Louisiana and the rest of the state. A Louisiana work injury lawyer earns his or her keep in the gaps between what the law promises and what an insurance carrier actually pays.
Those gaps are predictable. Louisiana’s system runs through the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration, where disputes are decided by workers’ compensation judges rather than juries, and where a handful of short deadlines can quietly decide a case. A denied surgery has a 15-day clock. A rejected utilization review decision has a 45-day clock. A final judgment has a 30-day appeal window. Missing any one of them can turn a winnable dispute into a closed door, which is why early involvement matters more here than in many other kinds of injury claims.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe for a Louisiana Work Injury Claim
Most lawyers who accept comp cases are personal injury attorneys who take one when it happens to arrive. This firm is built the other way around, and its attorneys bring more than 75 years of combined experience to claims that have been denied, delayed, or cut off. The firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements for clients, works on a no recovery, no fee basis, offers free consultations, advances the costs of the case, answers its phones 24 hours a day, and serves Spanish-speaking clients in their own language.
The results reflect the kinds of injuries Louisiana workers actually suffer: $685,000 for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, $600,000 for a construction worker with a complex back injury, $385,000 for a project manager hurt when his work vehicle was struck, and $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns to the lower extremities. Each number represents medical evidence assembled against an insurer that was arguing the injury was something else.
Rob Lunsford, Founding Partner, has spent his entire legal career representing injured workers. Brad Baskin and Jennifer Priebe, both Partners, have been recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and The National Trial Lawyers, and the firm was ranked by Best Law Firms in 2026 for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, in Jackson. Andrew Rueff has successfully tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict, a useful background when a dispute has to be argued rather than negotiated. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher complete the attorney team. Clients describe lawyers who listen, stay professional, and push back on the insurance company at every step.
Injuries and Claim Types We Handle for Louisiana Workers
- Back, neck, and spine injuries: Lumbar and cervical disc herniations are among the most common serious comp injuries, and carriers routinely blame degenerative disc disease. The answer is medical evidence showing how years of lifting, driving, or a single incident caused or aggravated the condition.
- Shoulder and knee injuries: Torn rotator cuffs, SLAP tears, ACL tears, and meniscus tears often follow repetitive pulling, climbing, or a fall on a job site. Employers sometimes call these old sports injuries, so the timing of symptoms and imaging matter.
- Fractures: Broken feet, ankles, hips, and other bones can require specialists and complex surgical repair, which means long stretches of temporary disability and frequent disputes over which surgeon the insurer will authorize.
- Burns and catastrophic injuries: Oil rigs, refineries, chemical plants, and industrial sites along South Louisiana’s energy corridor produce severe burn and crush injuries that carry the heaviest permanent disability and lifetime medical stakes.
- Firefighter and first responder claims: Hypertension, heart and lung disease, hepatitis, hearing loss, posttraumatic stress, and cancer tied to the job each come with their own proof problems about causation and exposure.
- Vehicle accidents on the job: Delivery drivers, truckers, and field staff hurt in wrecks while working may have both a comp claim and a separate claim against the at-fault driver, and the two have to be coordinated.
- Wrongful death: When a workplace accident kills a worker, surviving family members may be entitled to death benefits and may also have claims against third parties.
What to Do After a Work Injury in Louisiana
Report the injury to your employer immediately and in writing if you can. Louisiana law bars a compensation proceeding unless the employer receives notice within 30 days of the injury, and a casual comment to a coworker does not reliably count. Ask for medical care, tell every provider the injury happened at work, and describe it the same way each time, because inconsistencies in early medical records become the insurer’s best evidence later. Keep copies of incident reports, texts with supervisors, pay stubs, and anything that shows what your job physically required.
The formal claim has its own deadline. A claim generally must be filed within one year of the date of injury, though the period can stretch to three years from the last compensation payment when benefits have already been paid. That extension is narrower than people assume, so do not rely on it without checking. Claims are filed with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration, which operates district courts in Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Covington, Harahan, Houma, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, New Orleans, and Shreveport. The worker chooses the venue from three options: the parish where the injury happened, the parish where you lived when you were hurt, or the parish where the employer has its principal place of business. That choice can affect travel, the judge, and the court of appeal that eventually reviews the case.
Medical treatment disputes run on a separate and much faster track. If the insurer denies a treatment request through utilization review, the aggrieved party has 15 calendar days after receiving written notice to file Form 1009 with the OWC, and the OWC medical director then has 30 calendar days to decide. If you disagree with that decision, you have 45 days from the date it was issued to file Form 1008 under R.S. 23:1203.1, and the clock starts at issuance, not when the letter reaches you. Workers lose surgeries this way, not on the merits but on the calendar.
Avoid the mistakes that cost the most: giving a recorded statement without preparing, returning to work against your doctor’s restrictions, skipping appointments, posting activity on social media that contradicts your limitations, and signing anything from the insurer you have not had reviewed. Louisiana also protects you from being fired for filing a comp claim, so if your employer retaliates, tell your attorney right away.
How Louisiana Wage Benefits and Disability Ratings Work
Wage replacement in Louisiana is a percentage of your pre-injury earnings, capped at a weekly maximum that is set annually from the statewide average weekly wage and fixed by the date of your accident. A later increase does not raise a benefit already established for your injury date. Temporary total disability applies while you cannot work at all. Permanent partial and permanent total disability address lasting loss, and catastrophic injury and death carry additional benefits.
Supplemental earnings benefits are where many cases are won or lost. If you can return to work but cannot earn at least 90 percent of what you made before the injury, you may be owed two-thirds of the difference between your pre-injury wages and what you earn or are able to earn. Those benefits can continue until you are released to full duty, you are earning your pre-injury wages, or you reach the 520-week maximum, with temporary total disability weeks counting toward that total. The phrase “able to earn” is where insurers push hardest, often relying on vocational reports listing jobs the worker cannot realistically perform with permanent restrictions.
When an unfair ruling comes from the workers’ compensation judge, the decision is final unless appealed to the appropriate circuit court of appeal. An appeal that suspends the judgment must be filed within thirty days, and one that does not suspend it within sixty. Which of Louisiana’s five courts of appeal hears the case depends on the parish: the Fourth Circuit covers Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard; the Fifth covers Jefferson, St. Charles, St. James, and St. John the Baptist; the First includes East Baton Rouge and St. Tammany; the Third includes Lafayette and Calcasieu; and the Second includes Caddo and Ouachita. A party can then apply to the Louisiana Supreme Court for a writ within 30 days of notice of the judgment.
Louisiana Work Injury Questions Answered
Do I need a lawyer for a Louisiana workers’ compensation claim?
Not every claim requires one, but if benefits have been denied, delayed, reduced, or cut off, or if your injury will keep you out of work for a long time, a lawyer changes the balance. The insurer has adjusters and defense counsel working for it. You should have someone doing the same for you.
How much does it cost to hire the firm?
Nothing up front. Consultations are free, the firm advances the costs of your case, and fees are collected only if benefits or a settlement are recovered. Attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases are also limited and approved under state law.
How long do I have to report and file?
Report to your employer within 30 days of the injury. A formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident, with a possible extension to three years from the last compensation payment if benefits have been paid. Because the exceptions are technical, speak with a lawyer as early as you can.
The insurance company denied my surgery. What now?
You have 15 calendar days from receiving written notice of the denial to file Form 1009 with the OWC. The medical director then has 30 calendar days to rule. If you lose, a further review requires Form 1008 within 45 days of the decision’s issuance. These deadlines are strict, so contact an attorney the day the denial arrives.
What if I had a prior back or knee problem?
A pre-existing condition does not end your claim. If the job caused, worsened, or accelerated the condition, benefits may still be owed. Insurers raise this defense constantly, and answering it with treating-physician opinions and imaging comparisons is a central part of building the case.
Can my employer fire me for filing a claim?
Louisiana protects workers from retaliation for filing a compensation claim. If you were terminated, demoted, or disciplined after reporting an injury, tell your attorney during your consultation so the circumstances can be reviewed.
Can I choose where my case is heard?
Yes, within limits. You may file in the parish where you were hurt, the parish where you lived at the time, or the parish of the employer’s principal place of business. The right choice depends on convenience, the district office’s caseload, and which appellate circuit would review the result.
What happens if a third party caused my injury?
If a negligent driver, contractor, or equipment maker contributed to your injury, you may have a separate injury claim alongside comp. Louisiana’s general injury deadline is two years for injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024, and a wrongful death claim runs one year from death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer. Coordinating the two claims matters because a comp carrier may have reimbursement rights.
Does fault reduce my recovery in a third-party claim?
For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a claimant found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing, and lower fault reduces the award proportionally. Earlier claims remain under pure comparative fault. Workers’ compensation itself is no-fault, so your own carelessness generally does not defeat comp benefits.
Will my health insurance pay while the claim is pending?
Health insurers often resist paying for injuries they view as work-related, and billing treatment to the wrong payer can create reimbursement problems later. Tell providers the injury is work-related and let your attorney help sort out who pays while the dispute is open.
How long does a Louisiana comp case take?
It depends on the injury and the dispute. A straightforward claim with prompt payment may never reach a hearing. A contested surgery, a vocational fight over supplemental earnings, or an appeal can take many months or longer. Settlement timing usually follows medical stability, since both sides need a clear picture of permanent restrictions and future care.
Serving Injured Workers Across Louisiana
The firm represents injured workers statewide, starting in the metropolitan New Orleans area and extending through Jefferson, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes. Clients come from Metairie, Kenner, Harvey, Gretna, Slidell, Covington, and Chalmette, and from the refinery and port communities along the river. Farther west the firm handles claims from Baton Rouge, Gonzales, Denham Springs, and Houma, then across Acadiana in Lafayette, New Iberia, and Opelousas, and into Lake Charles and the Calcasieu industrial corridor. In north Louisiana the firm serves workers in Shreveport, Bossier City, Monroe, and Alexandria. Whether the injury happened on an offshore support job out of South Louisiana, a warehouse floor in Baton Rouge, or a highway haul through north Louisiana, the same deadlines and the same insurer tactics apply, and the firm is prepared to meet them.
Talk With a Louisiana Work Injury Attorney Today
If you were hurt at work in Louisiana, speak with a Louisiana work injury attorney before the deadlines make the decisions for you. Call the firm any hour of the day for a free consultation. There is no fee unless benefits or a settlement are recovered, and the firm advances the costs of your case. Workers’ compensation is what these attorneys do, and they are ready to take on the insurer while you focus on getting better.
