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LouisianaHB 9692026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

CRIMINAL/VICTIMS: Provides relative to compensation for victims of criminal offenses (EN SEE FISC NOTE SD EX)

Sponsored By: Jeffrey "Jeff" Wiley (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Judiciary BAdministration of Criminal Justice

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

17 provisions identified: 8 benefits, 2 costs, 7 mixed.

More victim expenses covered, property losses excluded

Compensation covers unpaid financial losses tied to injury or death from covered crimes, including violence, trafficking, and sexual offenses. Covered vehicle, boat, or aircraft incidents include intentional harm, fleeing a crime the operator knowingly joined, and listed driving offenses. Covered costs include medical care, counseling, lost earnings, dependent care, crime-scene cleanup, and belongings seized or ruined during investigations. Urgent lodging or relocation must protect the victim or household; trafficking tattoo removal requires fraud, force, or coercion. Costs must be reasonably necessary because of injury or death; catastrophic property loss no longer qualifies.

Victim award caps and legal-fee help

All claims tied to one victim’s covered injury or death share a $15,000 total limit. The limit is $25,000 when the injury causes permanent and total disability. Awards can be paid at once or in installments; the state treasurer pays the person or provider named in the order. Following a hearing, the Board may also award reasonable attorney fees, even when it awards no compensation. Fees must match the services provided, cannot exceed $50 per hour, and may be denied for frivolous claims or appeals.

Victims gain restitution and recovery routes

Specified money directed to the Fund through parole provisions must pay restitution owed to victims who apply for recovery. The attorney general may sue convicted offenders to recover compensation awarded for the victim’s injury or death. The lawsuit must begin within one year after the conviction becomes final. Recoveries replenish the Fund up to compensation paid; any amount collected above that goes to the claimant.

Help for residents victimized outside Louisiana

Louisiana residents can seek compensation for qualifying injuries or deaths from crimes in another state without an eligible compensation program. The victim must have maintained a permanent home in Louisiana when the crime happened. The crime must also qualify for compensation under Louisiana law. The law also covers Louisiana residents victimized by terrorism outside the United States.

More compensation access for victims’ families

Eligible family or household members of deceased victims can seek help for counseling or psychiatric care directly caused by the crime. The law counts unmarried people under 18 as children. It also includes unmarried people ages 18–23 attending secondary school or enrolled full-time in postsecondary school. Covered children include natural, adopted, and stepchildren, children born outside marriage, and children conceived before but born after the injury or death.

Survivors avoid forensic exam bills

Sexual-assault survivors cannot be billed for forensic medical exams; providers submit claims directly to the Board. Each qualifying exam pays $600 to the healthcare provider and $1,000 to the facility, not directly to the survivor. Providers and facilities submit a statement identifying the victim, exam date, and payment address. Bills and medical records are not required. Payment is due within 30 calendar days after submission, without waiting for a Board decision.

Compensation limits for confined victims and passengers

Compensation is barred for covered injuries or deaths occurring while the victim is confined because of a criminal conviction. This applies to state, parish, or city jails, prisons, and other correctional facilities. The Board may also deny or reduce awards for willing passengers in vehicles, boats, or aircraft operated in violation of listed impaired-operation laws.

Victim recovery from escrow has limits

Eligible victims can collect unpaid civil judgments or compensation awards from available money held in a defendant’s escrow account. Court-ordered payments follow the required priority order and require notice and a chance for a hearing. Direct-injury eligibility requires personal injury or death; catastrophic property damage alone no longer qualifies through that route. Other listed eligibility routes and legal representatives remain covered, but people denied compensation eligibility under Chapter 21 are excluded. Funds remain available for recovery for 10 years; remaining money transfers to the Fund unless a civil action could use it.

Emergency victim payments carry repayment duties

The Board may advance up to $1,000 while a compensation application awaits a final decision. The loss must already be incurred, a final award must be likely, and waiting must cause undue hardship. The advance reduces the final award. Claimants must repay any advance above the final award, or the full advance if no final award is made.

Victim awards account for other payments

Vacation and sick leave do not count as other payments that reduce compensation awards. Insurance, restitution, public benefits, employer wage continuation, and civil damages count toward reducing duplicate payments. After a later payment, claimants must repay the Fund only for combined payments above their actual loss. Claimants retain civil lawsuit rights, but must notify the Board and attorney general when filing. Civil recoveries require repayment up to the lesser of compensation paid or the amount recovered.

Victim eligibility protections and disqualification rules

Awards are generally barred for substantial refusal of reasonable police requests, offender or accessory status, or unjust benefit to either. Those bars do not apply to trafficking-related or sexual-offense claims; partial responsibility also cannot reduce awards for those injuries or deaths. Unrelated convictions, juvenile findings, probation, parole, or past sentences cannot justify denying or reducing compensation. A relationship or shared home with the offender when the crime happened cannot alone justify denial. Family or household members at award time qualify only if the offender receives no substantial financial benefit or unjust enrichment.

Victims get longer filing time, need proof

Victims must file a written compensation application within three years after the crime. The Board may allow more time when the circumstances justify an extension. A valid application must include reasonable proof of the crime that caused the injury or death. Proof can include police reports, court records, or a healthcare provider’s statement linking the injury to the crime. A provider or coroner can also confirm that a forensic exam was conducted directly because of the crime.

Victims get compensation information and privacy

At sentencing, judges must tell victims, their lawyers, or claimants about possible compensation and provide the Board’s contact information. The Board must publish current links to other states’ and territories’ compensation programs for residents victimized outside Louisiana. The Board and state law-enforcement commission must operate a statewide victims’ hotline and provide parish-specific information. Applicant identities are protected, with special safeguards for minors and victims of sexual offenses or trafficking.

Shorter prison limit for compensation fraud

Getting victim compensation by fraud, or advising someone else to do so, carries up to six months in prison. The maximum prison term drops from one year. The maximum fine remains $500, and a person can face both penalties.

Fine collections support victim compensation awards

Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund money is reserved for compensation awarded to victims or claimants under the law. The Fund receives 10% of specified fines collected from individual defendants. Court clerks must also send one-third of specified juvenile collections to the Fund each month. The law does not state the total revenue these collections provide.

Unclaimed prizes fund sexual-assault victim care

The law adds an unclaimed-prize source to funding for sexual-offense victims’ healthcare, including forensic medical exams. Specified pari-mutuel and jackpot money is remitted after a 90-day claim period. Quarterly remittances are due by the 15th day of the first month after each quarter ends. Authorized administrative spending from this money is limited to the salary of one additional full-time employee. The law states no total funding or salary amount.

Separate victim compensation chapter is repealed

The law repeals Chapter 21-A of Title 46, covering R.S. 46:1831.1 through 46:1831.16, in full. The supplied text does not identify which services, rights, or duties that chapter contained. This repeal alone does not establish which household benefits, if any, end.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

  • Jeffrey "Jeff" Wiley

    Republican • House

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 136 • No: 0

Senate vote • 5/26/2026

Read by title, passed by a vote of 37 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

Yes: 37 • No: 0

House vote • 4/29/2026

Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 89, nays 0. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.

Yes: 89 • No: 0

House vote • 4/23/2026

Reported with amendments

Yes: 10 • No: 0

Actions Timeline

  1. Signed by the Governor. Becomes Act No. 684.

    6/2/2026House

  2. Effective date: 08/01/2026.

    6/2/2026House

  3. Sent to the Governor for executive approval.

    5/28/2026House

  4. Signed by the President of the Senate.

    5/27/2026Senate

  5. Enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House.

    5/27/2026House

  6. Rules suspended.

    5/26/2026Senate

  7. Read by title and returned to the Calendar, subject to call.

    5/26/2026Senate

  8. Rules suspended. Called from the Calendar.

    5/26/2026Senate

  9. Read by title, passed by a vote of 37 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

    5/26/2026Senate

  10. Received from the Senate without amendments.

    5/26/2026House

  11. Reported without Legislative Bureau amendments. Read by title and passed to third reading and final passage.

    5/20/2026Senate

  12. Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.

    5/19/2026Senate

  13. Reported favorably.

    5/18/2026Senate

  14. Read second time by title and referred to the Committee on Judiciary B.

    5/4/2026Senate

  15. Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 89, nays 0. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.

    4/29/2026House

  16. Received in the Senate. Read first time by title and placed on the Calendar for a second reading.

    4/29/2026Senate

  17. Read by title, amended, ordered engrossed, passed to 3rd reading.

    4/27/2026House

  18. Scheduled for floor debate on 04/29/2026.

    4/27/2026House

  19. Reported with amendments (10-0).

    4/23/2026House

  20. Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.

    3/17/2026House

  21. Read by title. Lies over under the rules.

    3/16/2026House

Bill Text

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