Louisiana

All states

Luck of the Draw score: 40 out of 100

Louisiana leaves little to the judge on property: community property is split at equal net value, and alimony is capped at one-third of the payor’s net income and barred for a spouse at fault. Each side generally pays its own lawyer. On the book’s scale, 0 is a contract you can read and 100 is one that mostly says “ask the judge.” Louisiana ranks 3 of 51, counting from the state that leaves the least to the judge. How the index works, and every state’s score.

Part	Score	The rule, and where it comes from
Property	0 / 20	The court must divide community assets and liabilities so that each spouse receives property of an equal net value, and separate property is not divided. La. R.S. 9:2801(A)(4)(b)
Alimony	10 / 20	Final periodic support may not exceed one-third of the obligor’s net income except in domestic-abuse cases, and its duration is set by listed factors. La. Civ. Code art. 112(B), (D)
Fault	10 / 20	Only a spouse free from fault before the filing may receive final periodic support, while community property is divided at equal net value regardless of fault. La. Civ. Code arts. 111, 112(A); La. R.S. 9:2801(A)(4)(b)
Lawyers’ fees	0 / 20	Attorney fees are not allowed unless a statute or contract authorizes them, and the divorce statutes shift fees only to enforce past-due support or against a perpetrator of family violence. Stutts v. Melton, 130 So. 3d 808 (La. 2013); La. R.S. 9:375(A), 9:367; La. Civ. Code art. 2362.1
Second opinion	20 / 20	Recusal requires a listed ground or a substantial and objective basis, and jury trial is not available in divorce, partition, or alimony proceedings. La. Code Civ. Proc. arts. 151, 1732(4)-(5)

Getting in

A one-day wait. Apply to a clerk of court in any parish, or in Orleans to the state registrar or a city court judge, with certified birth certificates and ID. The ceremony must wait 24 hours after issue unless a judge or justice of the peace waives it for serious reasons. Covenant marriage adds premarital counseling and a signed declaration of intent.
La. R.S. 9:221, 9:225, 9:235, 9:241, 9:242, 9:272, 9:273; La. R.S. 13:841(D); La. R.S. 40:40(6); La. R.S. 46:2126(A)

Who can marry you. A priest, minister, rabbi, Quaker clerk or other clergy of legal age, authorized by their religion and registered by affidavit with the clerk of court, may officiate, as may a state judge or justice of the peace. A third person must perform the ceremony before two adult witnesses. The statute does not address online ordination.
La. C.C. arts. 91, 92; La. R.S. 9:202, 9:203, 9:204, 9:244

Common-law marriage: Not available here. A couple cannot form a common-law marriage in Louisiana. A marriage requires a ceremony, and one contracted without a ceremony is absolutely null. Louisiana courts do give effect to a common-law marriage validly formed in another state, and a marriage valid where contracted is generally treated as valid.
La. C.C. arts. 87, 94, 3520(A); Wyble v. Minvielle, 217 So. 2d 684 (La. Ct. App. 1969)

Chapter 5 of the book covers getting in, and whether you are in at all.

The property system

Louisiana is one of nine community property jurisdictions. Community property. What either of you earns during the marriage belongs to both of you as it’s earned, and it’s generally split in half at the end. Chapter 11 of the book covers what that means, and Chapter 22 covers what happens to it when you move.

What counts as marital. Louisiana is a community property state. Property acquired during the marriage through either spouse’s effort is community, and each owns half. Premarital property, inheritances and gifts to one spouse stay separate, but income from separate property is community unless the owner files a declaration reserving it. A divorce judgment ends the community retroactively to the filing date.
La. C.C. arts. 159, 2336, 2338, 2339, 2341, 2368

An inheritance that touches a joint account

It can stay separate if you can trace it. Inheritances are separate, and money does not become community just because it sits in a joint account. Only when separate and community funds are mixed so that they cannot be identified does everything become community. The spouse claiming separate funds must rebut the community presumption and trace them with sufficient certainty.
La. C.C. arts. 2340, 2341; Curtis v. Curtis, 403 So. 2d 56 (La. 1981); Jensen v. Jensen, 630 So. 2d 959 (La. Ct. App. 1994); Granger v. Granger, 722 So. 2d 107 (La. Ct. App. 1998)

Chapter 12 explains how mine becomes ours.

Your spouse’s medical bills (Article 5)

Both of you can be liable from the first dollar. Under the community regime, an obligation incurred by either spouse during marriage is presumed to be a community obligation and may be satisfied from all community property and from the separate property of the spouse who incurred it, but not from the other spouse’s separate property; spouses under a separation-of-property regime are solidarily liable for necessaries either incurs for himself or the family.
La. Civ. Code arts. 2345, 2360, 2361, 2372

Chapter 8 of the book explains the three ways states handle this.

If one of you dies (Article 9)

Louisiana has no elective share; the survivor keeps his or her half of the community, the decedent’s half passes by will, and if there is no will it goes to the survivor when there are no descendants or to the descendants subject to the survivor’s usufruct until death or remarriage. A spouse left poor compared with a rich decedent may claim the marital portion: one-fourth of the succession in ownership if there are no children, one-fourth in usufruct if there are three or fewer children, capped at $1 million.
La. Civ. Code arts. 889, 890, 2432, 2434, 3526

Chapter 9 covers what a will can and can’t take away from a spouse.

Prenups and postnups (Article 12)

One look, under its own statute (Louisiana Civil Code matrimonial-agreement articles, arts. 2328-2333). A matrimonial agreement is a contract enforceable on the same terms as other contracts and open to rescission only on the ordinary contract grounds (vices of consent at formation); a premarital waiver of post-divorce periodic support is enforceable. Spouses may make or change a matrimonial agreement during marriage, but modifying or ending the regime requires a joint petition and a court finding that it serves their best interests, except during the first year after moving to Louisiana.
La. Civ. Code arts. 2328, 2329; McAlpine v. McAlpine, 679 So. 2d 85 (La. 1996)

What an agreement needs. A matrimonial agreement must be made by authentic act (before a notary and two witnesses) or by an act under private signature duly acknowledged by the spouses; a mid-marriage agreement changing the regime needs court approval, and spouses may not renounce or alter the marital portion or the order of succession. No waiting period or independent-counsel rule appears in the articles.
La. Civ. Code arts. 2329, 2330, 2331

Chapter 29 explains one look and two, and what makes agreements stick.

Children (Article 8)

Child support: income shares. Louisiana’s statute adopts the income shares model, and each parent pays a share based on their percentage of combined adjusted income. Support ends at 18, or continues to 19 for a dependent full-time secondary student. The support statutes do not provide for college costs, and they preserve a parent’s agreement to pay more.
La. R.S. 9:315(A), 9:315.8(C), 9:315.22, 9:315.22.1; La. C.C. arts. 29, 224

Moving away with a child. A move out of state, or more than 75 miles within it, requires notice by certified mail or courier at least 60 days ahead. The other parent has 30 days to object. After an objection the moving parent must seek court approval and prove the move is in good faith and in the child’s best interest.
La. R.S. 9:355.2, 9:355.4, 9:355.5, 9:355.7, 9:355.9, 9:355.10, 9:355.14

Chapter 17 covers the children.

Getting out (Article 2)

How long you must live here before filing: no minimum. Louisiana sets no minimum stay. At filing, at least one spouse must be domiciled in the state. Six months in a parish creates a rebuttable presumption of domicile, and someone newer proves it through intent to make Louisiana their habitual residence. Only a covenant separation from bed and board adds a condition about where the grounds arose.
La. C.C.P. arts. 10(A)(7), 10(B), 3941; La. C.C. arts. 38, 44, 45; La. R.S. 9:308(B)

How long it takes. One spouse can divorce over objection after living apart 180 days, or 365 days with minor children. Filing after that period needs no further wait. In a covenant marriage, after counseling, a spouse needs proof of listed fault, or two years apart, or one year after a judgment of separation (18 months with minor children unless child abuse).
La. C.C. arts. 102, 103, 103.1; La. C.C.P. arts. 3952, 3953; La. R.S. 9:272(C), 9:307

The legal minimum for a spouse who moves here alone and files as soon as allowed, with no minor children and the other spouse objecting, is about 180 days from arrival to a final decree (no residence period + 180 apart, filing under art. 103(1); 365 apart with minor children). Courts often take longer.

If you moved here from another state

Earnings from elsewhere can count as community property. If either spouse lives here when the marriage ends, property acquired elsewhere that Louisiana law classifies as community is treated as community. Other property stays with the spouse who acquired it, and the other spouse gets, in value only, the rights the old state would give. In 2001 Louisiana’s Supreme Court held that a spouse who moves here alone doesn’t start a community regime.
La. Civ. Code art. 3526; Hand v. Hand, 802 So. 2d 560 (La. 2001)

Chapter 22 covers what changes when you move.

Each entry on this page comes from the statute, rule or case it cites, read in September or November 2026, except where the entry says it has not been checked. A rule can change after that, and a rule on paper can play out differently in a particular courthouse. No lawyer reviews these pages.

If you practice family law in Louisiana and would like to correct or contribute to this page, write to me.

Meanwhile

• The default contract, with the options states choose among. Read it with a Louisiana lawyer, or paste it into a chatbot along with “I live in Louisiana” and treat what comes back as a list of questions, not answers.
• Three contracts you could sign instead.
• A worksheet for reading it together, and every state’s Luck of the Draw score.
• Corrections, including changes in the law since the book went to press.
• About the book.