Q: Is texting while driving illegal in Louisiana?

Yes. La. R.S. 32:300.5 prohibits using a handheld wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication while operating a motor vehicle on a public road. The statute covers texts, emails, and social media access from a handheld device. Hands-free use is permitted. A first-offense fine is $500. A traffic citation for this violation is evidence of negligence (carelessness) in a civil lawsuit.

Q: What damages can I recover after a texting driver accident?

Damages available in a Louisiana personal injury claim include economic losses and non-economic losses. Economic losses cover medical expenses (past and future), lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and property damage. Non-economic losses cover physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of activities, and permanent disfigurement or disability. Louisiana does not impose a statutory cap on non-economic damages in most car accident cases.

Q: How do you prove a driver was texting?

The most direct evidence is cell phone records. Wireless carrier records show call logs, texts sent and received, and data activity by timestamp. An attorney can request or subpoena those records. Other evidence includes event data recorder downloads from the at-fault vehicle, traffic and business surveillance footage, witness statements, and social media or app activity at the time of the crash. Police reports alone rarely establish phone use. The investigation needs to go further.

Q: Can I still recover if I was partly at fault?

Louisiana applies comparative fault (shared responsibility). Recovery reduces by the percentage of fault assigned to you. A 30 percent fault finding means 70 percent recovery of total damages. For crashes occurring on or after January 1, 2026, the 51 percent bar applies: a person assigned 51 percent or greater fault receives no recovery at all. This rule applies to the accident date, not the filing date. Pre-January 1, 2026 crashes are governed by prior law, which allowed recovery at any fault percentage below 100 percent.

Q: How long do I have to file a texting driver accident claim in Louisiana?

Two years from the accident date for crashes on or after July 1, 2024. Louisiana shortened the prescriptive period (filing deadline) from three years under La. C.C. Art. 3493.11, enacted through Act 423 of the 2024 legislative session. Pre-July 1, 2024 accidents retain the three-year deadline. The deadline is firm. Courts dismiss cases filed after the applicable period regardless of evidence strength or injury severity.

Texting While Driving Accidents

There are plenty of qualified attorneys in Caddo Parish who handle texting while driving cases. You are doing your research, which means something has happened on a Shreveport road. Something serious enough that you are looking into legal options. No one reads lawyer websites until they need one.

Our clients came to us after they were injured in crashes caused by drivers who chose to look at their phones instead of the road. Rear-end collisions at red lights. Intersection T-bones. Sideswipes on I-20. The details differ. The pattern does not.

This page explains what Louisiana law says about texting while driving, how liability works when a driver causes a crash while on their phone, and what evidence matters in these cases. Read it. Compare attorneys. Make the decision that works for your situation.

What Makes Texting While Driving Different From Other Distractions?

Transportation safety researchers categorize driving distractions into three types: visual (taking your eyes off the road), manual (taking your hands off the wheel), and cognitive (taking your mind off driving). Most distracting behaviors involve one or two of these categories. Texting while driving combines all three simultaneously.

To send or read a text, a driver looks at the phone screen (visual), holds and manipulates the phone (manual), and focuses attention on the message content (cognitive). No other common driving distraction impairs all three control mechanisms at once.

At 55 mph, five seconds of inattention moves a vehicle approximately 400 feet. That is the length of a football field traveled while effectively not watching the road. A text message that takes five seconds to send covers that distance with no driver input.

Other phone behaviors, such as placing a call or using hands-free voice commands, involve fewer simultaneous impairments. Texting and similar manual phone interactions (scrolling social media, checking email, reading navigation alerts) represent the highest-risk category of phone-related distraction.

How Common Are Texting Driver Crashes in Shreveport?

Exact figures on phone-specific crashes understate the actual number. At crash scenes, drivers who were on their phones rarely disclose it to responding officers. Physical evidence of phone use is not routinely collected at minor crash scenes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) acknowledges that distracted driving crashes are broadly underreported in official statistics.

National data from NHTSA attributes approximately 3,000 traffic deaths per year to distracted driving. Phone use is the most studied distraction category, though NHTSA data shows that passengers as a distraction source account for a larger share of fatalities than phone use alone.

In Caddo Parish, distracted driving appears as a contributing factor in hundreds of crashes annually across Shreveport streets, parish highways, and the I-20 and I-49 corridors. The Youree Drive commercial corridor and the interchange at I-20 and I-49 generate a disproportionate share of Caddo Parish crash reports.

Younger drivers show higher rates of phone interaction while driving. Drivers aged 20 to 29 represent the largest share of distracted driving fatalities nationally. But phone-related crashes are not age-restricted. They occur across all demographics, vehicle types, and road conditions.

Louisiana Law on Texting While Driving

La. R.S. 32:300.5 prohibits using a handheld wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication while operating a motor vehicle on a public road. The statute covers texting, email, and social media access from a handheld device. It does not prohibit hands-free use, voice-operated systems, or GPS navigation through a device mounted in a fixed, dashboard position.

A first offense carries a $500 fine. Subsequent violations increase. The law also applies to learner's permit holders and intermediate license holders, who face additional restrictions on all handheld device use.

In a civil lawsuit, a traffic citation for violating La. R.S. 32:300.5 is evidence of negligence. Negligence means the driver failed to meet the standard of care a reasonably careful driver is expected to maintain. The citation does not automatically establish liability, but it creates a documented violation that plaintiffs can introduce as evidence. Louisiana courts permit introduction of traffic infractions as evidence in civil proceedings.

The statute does not cover all phone-related behavior. A driver holding a phone and talking (without texting) is not expressly prohibited under this statute. However, any behavior that causes an accident and falls below the reasonable care standard can constitute negligence in a civil claim regardless of whether a statute directly addresses it.

Who Is Liable After a Texting Driver Crash?

The driver who was texting is the primary liable party. Louisiana law requires every driver to keep a proper lookout, maintain control of their vehicle, and drive at a speed and in a manner appropriate for conditions. A driver who diverts attention from the road to a phone screen and causes a collision has breached that duty.

If the texting driver was working at the time of the crash, the employer may share liability. Louisiana applies respondeat superior (an employer is responsible for actions of an employee acting within the scope of employment). A driver checking work messages, responding to a supervisor, or managing dispatch communications through a phone while driving is acting within employment scope. Employer liability applies separately from driver liability. Both may be named as defendants.

Establishing liability requires connecting the phone use to the crash. The at-fault driver will not acknowledge texting voluntarily. That evidence comes from documentation obtained through investigation and, when necessary, litigation discovery.

What Evidence Proves a Driver Was Texting?

Proving a driver was texting at the moment of impact requires specific evidence. Police reports do not typically include conclusions about phone use. The investigation has to go further.

Cell phone records. Attorneys can request or subpoena call logs and data usage records from wireless carriers. These records show call timestamps, texts sent and received, and data activity by time. If a text was sent in the seconds before a crash or a message was received at the moment of impact, that is documented evidence directly tied to the crash timeline.

Event data recorders. Most vehicles built after 2012 contain an event data recorder (EDR), sometimes called a black box. EDR data captures vehicle speed, braking input, throttle position, and steering in the seconds before a crash. Combined with phone records, EDR data can establish what the driver was doing when the collision occurred.

Traffic and business surveillance footage. Shreveport intersections, commercial corridors like Youree Drive, and highway ramp areas often have camera coverage. Footage showing a driver looking down at a device before impact is direct evidence of distraction. Surveillance systems frequently overwrite footage within 24 to 72 hours of recording. Preserving this evidence requires acting quickly after a crash.

Witness statements. Other drivers, pedestrians, and passengers may have observed the at-fault driver holding a phone or looking down before the crash. Statements collected close to the incident date carry more weight than those taken months later.

Social media and app activity. Timestamps on messages sent, photos taken, or app interactions during the crash window can corroborate or contradict the at-fault driver's account of their actions.

Thorough investigation launched within days of the crash, not months later, protects the evidence that ultimately supports claims.

What Are Your Legal Options After a Texting Driver Accident in Shreveport?

If a texting driver caused your crash, you can hold that driver liable (legally responsible) for your injuries, property damage, and other losses.

Whether you can file a lawsuit depends on several factors, including:

Whether the other driver owed you a duty of care
Whether the other driver breached that duty through phone use while driving
Whether the breach directly caused the accident
Whether you suffered actual damages as a result

Louisiana applies comparative fault: every party to a crash, including the injured person, receives a percentage of responsibility based on evidence. Recovery reduces by the percentage of fault assigned to you. A 20 percent fault finding means 80 percent recovery of total damages.

For crashes occurring on or after January 1, 2026, a critical change applies. Under revised La. C.C. Art. 2323, enacted through Act 15 of the 2025 legislative session, a person assigned 51 percent or greater fault is completely barred from recovery. This is a hard cutoff. Under the prior rule, even a person found 99 percent at fault could recover 1 percent of damages. That rule no longer applies to post-January 1, 2026 crashes. Fault allocation matters more than it has at any prior point in Louisiana law.

Damages available include economic losses (medical expenses, past and future treatment costs, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, property damage) and non-economic losses (physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, activity loss, and permanent disfigurement). Louisiana imposes no statutory cap on non-economic damages in most car accident cases.

Louisiana's prescriptive period (deadline) for filing a car accident claim is two years from the accident date for crashes occurring on or after July 1, 2024. Pre-July 1, 2024 crashes carry a three-year deadline. Missing the applicable deadline means courts dismiss cases regardless of evidence strength.

Morris & Dewett Handles Texting Driver Cases in Shreveport

Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers handles car accident cases in Shreveport, including collisions caused by drivers who were texting or using a phone. If you want to understand your options, the firm can walk you through the evidence, the claims process, and what your case involves.

Related practice areas:

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is texting while driving illegal in Louisiana?: Yes. La. R.S. 32:300.5 prohibits using a handheld wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication while operating a motor vehicle on a public road. The statute covers texts, emails, and social media access from a handheld device. Hands-free use is permitted. A first-offense fine is $500. A traffic citation for this violation is evidence of negligence (carelessness) in a civil lawsuit.
Q: What damages can I recover after a texting driver accident?: Damages available in a Louisiana personal injury claim include economic losses and non-economic losses. Economic losses cover medical expenses (past and future), lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and property damage. Non-economic losses cover physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of activities, and permanent disfigurement or disability. Louisiana does not impose a statutory cap on non-economic damages in most car accident cases.
Q: How do you prove a driver was texting?: The most direct evidence is cell phone records. Wireless carrier records show call logs, texts sent and received, and data activity by timestamp. An attorney can request or subpoena those records. Other evidence includes event data recorder downloads from the at-fault vehicle, traffic and business surveillance footage, witness statements, and social media or app activity at the time of the crash. Police reports alone rarely establish phone use. The investigation needs to go further.
Q: Can I still recover if I was partly at fault?: Louisiana applies comparative fault (shared responsibility). Recovery reduces by the percentage of fault assigned to you. A 30 percent fault finding means 70 percent recovery of total damages. For crashes occurring on or after January 1, 2026, the 51 percent bar applies: a person assigned 51 percent or greater fault receives no recovery at all. This rule applies to the accident date, not the filing date. Pre-January 1, 2026 crashes are governed by prior law, which allowed recovery at any fault percentage below 100 percent.
Q: How long do I have to file a texting driver accident claim in Louisiana?: Two years from the accident date for crashes on or after July 1, 2024. Louisiana shortened the prescriptive period (filing deadline) from three years under La. C.C. Art. 3493.11, enacted through Act 423 of the 2024 legislative session. Pre-July 1, 2024 accidents retain the three-year deadline. The deadline is firm. Courts dismiss cases filed after the applicable period regardless of evidence strength or injury severity.

These answers reflect Louisiana law as of January 2026. For case specific advice, consult with a Louisiana personal injury attorney who can evaluate your particular circumstances.