Louisiana Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
When land is expropriated by the government, there are many questions concerning how much money the government will owe you. Courts consider factors such as the appraised value of the property, relocation costs, inconvenience, and other possible damages. See La. Const. art. I, §4(B)(5). The best lawyers are familiar with the different approaches the court could use to determine the amount of damages and are prepared to get the best results for their client. A recent case from the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal highlights several different approaches than can be taken by a court in deciding land expropriation damages.
In 2008, the City of Baton Rouge and the Parish of East Baton Rouge expropriated a portion of land on which Baton Rouge Rentals & Sales was located. In this property taking, the city took 0.101 acre of land (4,380.9 square feet) and the business was forced to close their doors and vacate the building. Fifty-one percent of the property was owned by two sisters, Charlene McDonald Nelson and Kathleen McDonald, and forty-nine percent was owned by an employee of Baton Rouge Rentals & Sales, Connie Hyde. The original owner, Charles Hyde, transferred the forty-nine percent to Hyde shortly before he died. Hyde paid rent to the sisters and continued to operate the business until 2008.
The government contended that the total expropriation value of the property was $143,205, a value determined by a court-approved appraiser, Sharon Pruitt. There are three ways to determine the expropriation value of the property before the taking: cost approach, sales approach, and income approach. The cost approach values the taken property based off similar properties. The income approach determines the value by future potential income from the property. And the sales approach, the approach accepted by the trial and appellate courts, is the estimated cost of replacement after the improvements plus the value of the land. The sales approach generated a “before expropriation value” of $329,000 for the property, the income approach was $322,000, and the cost approach was $335,000. In Ms. Pruitt’s expert opinion, the sales approach was the best value determination for this property.
Doctors – we literally put our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, in their hands. It is the most frightening feeling to know that your loved one is in surgery, the possibility of death or complications is always imminent, no matter how small or standard of a surgery. This feeling of fright often turns to anger and pain once someone has lost a loved one. Especially, where we believe the death is due to the negligence of the very doctor we put in control of the fate of our lives. 
In filing any petition for damages before a court, timing is critical. And similarly critical is the clear articulation of one’s legal and factual complaints. Failure to timely and clearly raise a particular legal issue risks dismissal by the court. Defendants in litigation can and will use defensive pleadings known as “exceptions,” which seek to have a court dismiss a complaint or petition before the court considers it on the merits. The exception of prescription asserts that the plaintiff brought the claim after the period of time allowed by statute. The exception of prematurity asserts that a particular claim is not sufficiently mature or “ripe” for the court to hear it. A plaintiff in a recent case of the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal nearly risked the dismissal of his claims under these two exceptions.
Often in a discussion of tort law, the determination of whether an environment is reasonably safe is left up to the trier of fact in a particular case. Often, the trier of fact is a jury who listens to the evidence of the case and returns a verdict about the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. But how much discretion does a trier of fact actually have to determine the standard of reasonableness and whether or not the defendant breached this standard? A case from the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal discusses the standards by which an appellate tribunal must review a jury’s finding when the factual basis for the jury’s finding is called into question.
What happens in Baton Rouge if your Lawyer does not file your lawsuit appeal on time? You could lose that appeal. The following case demonstrates that Louisiana Courts follow strict procedural rules when it comes to filing for request for new trial. The best lawyers in Baton Rouge know these rules, so choose your lawyer wisely.
A case arising out of the State of Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal considers whether defendants should have been permitted to raise certain peremptory contractual exceptions in the trial court: namely, objections of prescription, peremption, no cause of action, no right of action, and a dilatory exception of vagueness. See 
Summary judgments are procedural devices used when no genuine issue of material fact exist that should be litigated in a full trial. The burden of proving that there is no issue as to material facts is on the party who is seeking the summary judgment. Once the moving party establishes that no genuine issue of material fact exists, the burden then shifts to the opposing party to present evidence that indicates that there is in fact a dispute as to material facts. A recent lawsuit arising from Ascension Parish Louisiana discusses the standards used by courts to evaluate summary judgment motions.