HLS 18RS-3538 ORIGINAL
2018 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 88
BY REPRESENTATIVE JAMES
PRESCRIPTION: Requests the Louisiana State Law Institute to study liberative
prescription applicable to suits on open accounts
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To urge and request the Louisiana State Law Institute to study the effects of enacting a law
3 that would amend Code of Civil Procedure Article 927 and Civil Code Article 3452
4 to allow courts to raise prescription sua sponte in suits on open accounts filed by
5 entities buying consumer debt for collection purposes and to report its findings of the
6 study to the legislature no later than February 1, 2019.
7 WHEREAS, Louisiana Civil Code Article 3494 states that the prescriptive period for
8an action on an open account is subject to a liberative prescription period of three years; and
9 WHEREAS, Louisiana Appleseed published a report in 2015 on debt buyer lawsuits
10in Louisiana finding that ninety-one percent of defendants were not represented and half of
11the cases result in default judgments in the sample studied; and
12 WHEREAS, Civil Code Article 3452 and Code of Civil Procedure Article 927(B)
13state that prescription must be pleaded and the court is not permitted to supply a plea of
14prescription; and
15 WHEREAS, prescription is the only peremptory exception that may not be raised by
16the court; and
17 WHEREAS, a default judgment can be rendered on a prescribed debt and result in
18wage garnishments for unrepresented defendants; and
19 WHEREAS, the practice of filing suit on prescribed debts results in legally
20unenforceable obligations becoming enforceable against unrepresented consumers, creating
21an access to justice issue that clashes with legislative intent and public policy; and
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HCR NO. 88
1 WHEREAS, filing suit after the prescriptive period is a violation of the Fair Debt
2Collection Practices Act.
3 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
4urge and request the Louisiana State Law Institute to commission a study regarding a law
5that would allow the courts to raise prescription sua sponte in suits on open accounts filed
6by entities buying consumer debt for collection purposes and to report the findings to the
7Louisiana Legislature no later than February 1, 2019.
8 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
9to the director of the Louisiana State Law Institute.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 88 Original 2018 Regular Session James
Requests the Louisiana State Law Institute to commission a study regarding a law that would
allow the courts to raise prescription sua sponte in suits on open accounts filed by entities
buying consumer debt for collection purposes and to report the findings to the Louisiana
Legislature no later than February 1, 2019.
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