In the wake of recent flooding in Louisiana, Governor Edwards has issued Executive Order JBE 2016-53, suspending all legal deadlines, including liberative prescriptive and peremptive periods, in all state courts and regulatory agencies. The order applies retroactively from Friday, August 12, 2016, and will last through Friday, September 9, 2016, providing a 28 day suspension period. As a result, the period of time in which a party must file suit has been temporarily suspended from August 12, 2016 through September 9, 2016. On September 10, 2016, the prescriptive and peremptive periods will begin running and the time which preceded the suspension should be added to the time which follows it to determine the necessary prescriptive or peremptive period. Therefore, parties who currently have prescriptive or peremptive periods running will have an additional 28 days to file suit before those periods accrue.

Executive Order JBE 2016-53 also temporarily suspends legal delays, such as those pertaining to service deadlines, motions for new trial, motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, suspensive appeals, and devolutive appeals. Again, the suspension will not commence these delays anew, but temporarily halt their running.

Executive Order JBE 2016-53 applies to all deadlines found in the Louisiana Civil Code, the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, Title 9 (Civil Code Ancillaries) Title 13 (Courts and Judicial Procedure), Chapter 11 of Title 18 (Election Campaign Financing); Chapter 10 of Title 23 (Worker’s Compensation); Chapter 5, Part XXI-A of Title 40 (Malpractice Liability for State Services); Chapter 5, Part XXIII, of Title 40 (Medical Malpractice), and Title 49, Chapter 13 (Administrative Procedure) of the Louisiana Revised Statutes

A copy of Executive Order JBE 2016-53 can be found here.