Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Every matter is handled directly by Stephen “Curt” Aertker, Jr., from the first call to the final resolution. There are no hand-offs, no associates, and no file numbers — the lawyer who prepares your case is the one who appears in court.

Call 985·612·7220 or use the contact form. For most injury, malpractice, and criminal matters the initial consultation is complimentary; for transactional and planning work, the firm will explain any consultation fee up front.

It depends on the matter. Injury and malpractice cases are handled on a contingency fee — no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery. Defined projects such as business formation, estate planning, and the College Legal Package are handled on a flat fee. Litigation and ongoing counsel are typically hourly. Fees are discussed clearly before any engagement.

The firm is based in Covington and serves the Northshore — St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes — and clients across southeast Louisiana and Mississippi. Stephen is admitted in the state courts of both states, the federal district courts of both states, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and appears in other states by pro hac vice admission.

Yes — licensed in Louisiana since 1997 and Mississippi since 1998.

Not by itself. Reaching out or submitting the contact form does not create an attorney-client relationship; that begins only when an engagement is established. Please avoid sending confidential or time-sensitive details until then.

Louisiana recently extended the deadline for most injury claims from one year to two years for injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024 (La. C.C. art. 3493.1). Claims that arose earlier may still fall under the prior one-year period, and other deadlines can apply to claims against public entities. Because the rules turn on dates and exceptions, confirm your deadline with a lawyer promptly — missing it can end the claim.

Nothing up front. Injury and malpractice matters are handled on a contingency fee — there is no attorney’s fee unless and until a recovery is made. The firm advances case costs and expenses; a client may be responsible for them if there is no recovery. This is all spelled out in the engagement agreement.

Be cautious. First offers are frequently low, and once you sign a release and settle, you generally cannot reopen the claim — even if your injuries turn out to be worse than they first appeared. It is worth having a lawyer review any offer before you sign.

Often, yes — but Louisiana changed this rule. Louisiana now follows modified comparative fault: for accidents on or after January 1, 2026, La. C.C. art. 2323 bars recovery entirely if your share of fault is 51% or more; below that threshold, recovery is reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault. Claims arising from earlier accidents may be governed by the prior rule. Because 51% is now an all-or-nothing line, the percentage an insurer assigns you matters far more than it once did — and insurers routinely overstate a claimant’s share.

It runs through an entirely separate system. A claim against a qualified provider must generally go to a medical review panel before suit, the Patient’s Compensation Fund and a $500,000 cap (with future medical care excepted) may apply, and the deadline is governed by La. R.S. 9:5628 — one year, with a three-year peremptive outer limit. See the Medical Malpractice page for detail.

No honest lawyer can answer that without the facts. Value depends on the nature of the injuries, the treatment and prognosis, the degree of fault, and the available insurance. The firm evaluates this after reviewing your specific situation.

There are two main routes. Under Article 102, you file first and the divorce is granted after living separate and apart for 180 days (no minor children) or 365 days (with minor children). Under Article 103, a divorce can be granted when you have already lived apart for the required time, or immediately on fault grounds such as adultery or a felony conviction. Covenant marriages follow stricter rules.

By the best interest of the child (La. C.C. arts. 131 and 134). Louisiana courts favor arrangements giving a child continuing contact with both parents — typically joint custody with a designated domiciliary parent and a clear implementation plan.

Under statutory income-shares guidelines (La. R.S. 9:315 et seq.) that combine both parents’ income, the number of children, and add-ons such as health insurance and child care. The formula is fixed, but the figures that go into it — especially for self-employment and bonuses — are where these cases are won.

Possibly. Louisiana recognizes interim support during the divorce and final periodic support afterward. Final support is available only to a spouse who is free from fault and in need, is weighed against statutory factors, and is capped at one-third of the paying spouse’s net income.

Louisiana is a community property state. Absent a matrimonial agreement, most assets and debts acquired during the marriage are divided on divorce. The work lies in classifying community versus separate property, tracing, valuation, and partition under La. R.S. 9:2801.

Exercise your right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer before answering any questions. You cannot talk your way out of an arrest, and statements made without counsel are a common way cases are lost. Be polite, but say nothing about the allegations until you have spoken with an attorney.

Yes. A DWI triggers two separate proceedings: the criminal charge under La. R.S. 14:98 and an administrative action against your driver’s license. You generally have a strict deadline — about 30 days — to request an administrative hearing, or your license is suspended automatically, regardless of the criminal outcome.

Often. Louisiana law (La. C.Cr.P. arts. 971–995) allows many arrests and certain convictions to be expunged once applicable waiting periods and eligibility requirements are met. Whether you qualify depends on the offense and your history; the firm can evaluate your eligibility.

A “minor” charge can still leave a record that employers, landlords, and licensing boards see for years. Counsel can often protect your record through dismissal, diversion, or a deferred disposition that keeps a conviction off your record entirely.

Not before talking to a lawyer. There may be defenses, an unlawful stop or search to challenge, or alternatives that protect your record and your future. A quick guilty plea can have consequences that outlast the case.

If you die without one, the Civil Code decides who inherits and in what shares — which may not match your wishes. A valid Louisiana will lets you direct your estate, name an executor, and designate a tutor for minor children. It also makes the eventual succession far simpler for your family.

Louisiana is the only state that retains it. Children who are 23 or younger, or who are permanently incapable of caring for themselves, are forced heirs entitled to a protected share — one-fourth of the estate for a single forced heir, one-half for two or more. Any plan must account for it, and a plan that ignores it invites a challenge.

Usually yes — a succession is how title to real estate, accounts, and other assets is legally transferred to the heirs. Smaller estates, or those where the death occurred long ago, may qualify for a simpler small-succession affidavit instead of a full proceeding.

It varies. A simple, uncontested succession placing heirs in possession can move relatively quickly; one requiring administration — paying debts, selling assets, running a business — or one that is contested takes longer. The firm works to move them efficiently.

Louisiana is different. Out-of-state living-trust forms often do not function as promised here, because Louisiana’s civil law treats trusts and successions differently. Trusts are valuable for specific purposes, but they are not the automatic probate-avoidance tool national advisors assume. Have any plan reviewed by Louisiana counsel.

Maybe not. Louisiana’s formalities for a valid testament are exacting, and a will that is perfectly valid in another state can be declared invalid here. It is safer to have your will drafted to Louisiana’s requirements.

Often, yes. Louisiana allows a small succession affidavit in place of a full court proceeding, and the threshold went up: for successions of Louisiana domiciliaries opened on or after August 1, 2026, the gateway is $200,000, raised from $125,000 by Acts 2026, No. 293. The separate lane for out-of-state decedents with Louisiana property remains at $125,000, and there is a long-standing lane for deaths more than twenty years ago with no cap at all. The firm’s small succession screener walks the thresholds.

Likely in both. Real estate is governed by the law of the state where it sits, so a Mississippi estate proceeding does not by itself transfer Louisiana immovable property, and a Louisiana judgment of possession conveys nothing in Mississippi. These matters usually need a proceeding in each state, sequenced so the second is not held up by the first. The firm is licensed in both — see two-state successions.

It depends on ownership, tax goals, and how you plan to grow or exit. Most small Louisiana businesses are well served by an LLC, but not all — and the choice affects taxes, liability, and governance for years. It is worth a short conversation before anything is filed.

Maybe not. Louisiana strongly disfavors non-competes and declares them void unless they fit squarely within the narrow exceptions of La. R.S. 23:921 — including a limited duration (generally up to two years) and a precise specification of the parishes or municipalities covered. Many non-competes are unenforceable as written, which matters whether you are enforcing or escaping one.

Louisiana’s Private Works Act (La. R.S. 9:4801 et seq.) imposes strict notice and deadline requirements on construction liens. A lien that does not comply can often be challenged or cancelled. These matters move on deadlines, so act quickly.

Louisiana resolves this through the action of boundary, which fixes the line based on titles and survey — and, where it applies, the rules of acquisitive prescription. The firm coordinates licensed surveyors and resolves encroachments by agreement where possible and by judgment where necessary.

Sooner than most people expect. A possessory action — the suit to be restored to possession after a disturbance — must be brought within one year of the disturbance (La. C.C.P. art. 3658). Waiting also risks a larger problem: continued possession by someone else can ripen into ownership through acquisitive prescription. A boundary that has been wrong for years is a different and harder case than one addressed promptly.

Move immediately. In a Louisiana expropriation, a landowner contesting the validity of the taking must file a motion to dismiss within twenty days of service — and failing to file it waives every defense except the claim for compensation (La. R.S. 48:447; La. R.S. 19:147 for other expropriating authorities). A separate ten-day fuse can convert a missed answer into a final judgment at whatever the state deposited. Compensation is still negotiable after that; nothing else is.

Yes, for two reasons. Without one, Louisiana’s default statutory rules govern your company, and those defaults were not written with your business in mind. Second, the agreement is part of what demonstrates the LLC is a real and separate entity — which is the point of forming one. Banks, buyers, and lenders also ask for it, usually at the least convenient moment.

More than most people assume. Depending on the operating agreement and the conduct involved, the range runs from a negotiated buyout, to a claim for breach of fiduciary duty, to judicial withdrawal of a member or dissolution of the company. What the operating agreement says about transfers, valuation, and deadlock usually drives which of those is realistic — which is why the first step is reading the document rather than filing anything.

Tell your employer. Louisiana requires notice of the injury to the employer within 30 days (La. R.S. 23:1301), and a formal claim must be filed with the Office of Workers’ Compensation within one year of the accident (La. R.S. 23:1209). Both are unforgiving, and an injury that surfaces later runs on a different clock. Report it in writing and confirm your dates with a lawyer.

Wage benefits run at two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to a state maximum and minimum that change every September 1. The firm’s workers’ compensation estimator carries the current figures. What you are owed also depends on which benefit applies — temporary total, supplemental earnings, or a scheduled loss — and those pay very differently.

Generally no. Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer for a work injury (La. R.S. 23:1032), which is the trade-off for benefits that do not require proving fault. There is a narrow exception for intentional acts, and a work injury caused by someone other than your employer — a subcontractor, a driver, a product manufacturer — can support a separate claim that comp does not bar.

You have a statutory right to a choice of treating physician (La. R.S. 23:1121), and the form designating that physician must carry notice of your rights. An employer or insurer may require its own examination, but that is not the same thing as choosing your treating doctor. If you are being told otherwise, get advice before signing anything.

Yes. Disputed claims go to the Office of Workers’ Compensation on a Form 1008, and Louisiana law penalizes an employer or insurer that stops or withholds benefits without a reasonable basis. Late payment can carry penalties and attorney’s fees. Do not wait out a stoppage — the one-year filing period keeps running.

Possibly — and the answer changed recently. Independent contractors are generally outside the comp system, but one who spends a substantial part of the work in manual labor is covered, and as of August 1, 2026 that coverage extends to the employees of a manual-labor independent contractor (Acts 2026, No. 133). Coverage questions in construction and trucking turn on specific facts and are worth checking rather than assuming.

Job title does not decide it. Seaman status is a legal test — whether your duties contribute to the function of a vessel, and whether your connection to that vessel or an identifiable fleet is substantial in both duration and nature. Deckhands, cooks, engineers, and roustabouts have all qualified; workers with the same titles have failed the test on different facts. It is the most consequential question in an offshore case, because it decides which body of law pays you.

For a Jones Act or general maritime tort claim, including unseaworthiness, three years (46 U.S.C. § 30106). Longshore and harbor workers run on an entirely different and much shorter clock — see below. Death on the high seas has its own three-year statute. These are federal periods and they do not track Louisiana’s injury deadlines, so do not reason from what you have read about ordinary accident claims.

No fault is required. A seaman who falls ill or is injured in the service of the vessel is owed maintenance (daily living expenses) and cure (medical care) until reaching maximum medical improvement, regardless of who was to blame. It is owed independently of any negligence claim, and a wrongful refusal can carry additional exposure for the vessel owner. Do not treat it as something to claim later — the firm does not rely on any assumed deadline for maintenance and cure, and neither should you.

There is no statutory maintenance rate. Maintenance is a fact to be proved — your actual cost of food and lodging ashore — not a figure to be looked up, and long-standing daily rates written into union agreements or offered by an employer are frequently far below what the evidence supports. An offered per-diem is a starting position, not a legal entitlement.

Most likely the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and its deadlines are short: written notice within 30 days of the injury (33 U.S.C. § 912) and a claim within one year (§ 913(a)). One wrinkle works in your favor — if the employer has been paying compensation without a formal award, the one year runs from the last payment, not from the injury, so a worker paid for years and cut off last month may still be in time. Hearing-loss claims run on a different provision entirely.

This is the trap that costs workers everything. Under 33 U.S.C. § 933(g), settling a claim against a third party without the required written approval of both the employer and the carrier, obtained before you sign, can terminate all future compensation and medical benefits — and it binds workers who were receiving voluntary payments, not just those under a formal award. There is also a separate duty to notify the employer of any settlement or judgment. Do not sign a maritime release without counsel reviewing it first.

No — and most claims are denied at first. There are four stages after the initial decision: reconsideration, a hearing before an administrative law judge, the Appeals Council, and a suit in federal district court. Each has a 60-day deadline running from your receipt of the notice, which is presumed to be five days after the date on the notice. The hearing is where most claims are actually won, and the record you build before it is what decides the case.

Nothing up front. Social Security fees are set by statute and paid out of back benefits: the lesser of 25% of past-due benefits or $9,200, and the fee must be approved. If there are no past-due benefits, there is generally no fee. The $9,200 cap has been in place since November 30, 2024.

SSDI is an insurance benefit — you qualify through the work credits you earned, and the amount reflects your earnings record. SSI is needs-based, with strict limits on income and resources ($2,000 for an individual, $3,000 for a couple — unchanged since 1989 and not indexed). The medical standard for disability is the same; the eligibility gates are completely different, and some people qualify for both.

Some work is possible, but earnings above a monthly threshold SSA sets each year count as substantial gainful activity and will end the claim at step one, before anyone looks at your medical evidence. For 2026 that figure is $1,690 per month ($2,830 if blind). The rule counts earnings, not hours, and it is the most common avoidable reason a strong claim fails.

Elect to continue benefits in writing within 10 days of receiving the cessation notice. That election is separate at the reconsideration stage and again at the hearing stage, and it is routinely missed. Continued benefits are technically recoverable if the cessation is upheld, but a waiver is often available — and the certain loss of income from not electing is usually the worse risk. Appeal the cessation itself as well.

Tell the judge in writing before the deadline. Evidence must be submitted or the judge informed about it no later than five business days before the hearing, or it can be excluded. The “inform” option is the safety valve: written notice of every outstanding record set before the deadline preserves records that arrive late.

Louisiana requires final wages to be paid within 15 days of separation or by the next regular payday, whichever comes first (La. R.S. 23:631). An employer that fails to pay after demand can owe a penalty — the lesser of 90 days’ wages or wages from the date of demand until paid — plus attorney’s fees on a well-founded suit (La. R.S. 23:632). A genuine good-faith dispute over the amount limits that exposure, which is why the date of your written demand matters.

Both Louisiana and Mississippi are at-will states: absent a contract for a definite term, either side may end the employment for any reason or no reason. The claim, when there is one, comes from an exception — discrimination, retaliation for reporting illegal conduct, FMLA interference, or a contract term. “Unfair” and “unlawful” are different questions, and the answer usually turns on the reason rather than the fairness.

It matters enormously, and this is the most commonly blown deadline in employment law. Louisiana: 300 days to file with the EEOC. Mississippi: 180 days. Louisiana has a state civil-rights agency and Mississippi does not, which is what drives the difference. Never assume the Louisiana period applies to a Mississippi job — missing the charge deadline ends the federal discrimination claim outright.

Physicians have their own rules, added effective January 1, 2025. A primary care physician’s non-compete is limited to three years and to the parish of principal practice plus no more than two contiguous parishes. For other physicians the cap is five years, and no non-compete is permitted in any contract after that initial five-year term. These are narrower limits than the general rule, and many physician agreements were written before them.

Only if the working relationship actually is one. The label on the paperwork does not control — the analysis looks at the real degree of control over how the work gets done. Misclassification can mean unpaid overtime, unpaid payroll taxes, and lost workers’ compensation coverage, and the remedies differ depending on which of those is at stake.

Salary alone does not make you exempt. Exemption requires both a salary basis and duties that actually fit a recognized exemption, and the duties half is where most employers get it wrong. Job titles carry no weight in the analysis. Unpaid overtime claims are subject to their own limitations period, so a delay costs weeks of recovery at the back end.

An authentic act is a document executed before a notary and two witnesses, all signing in each other’s presence (La. C.C. art. 1833). It carries a status ordinary notarized documents do not: it is full proof of the agreement between the parties without further authentication. Louisiana requires the form for certain transactions — sales of real estate and donations among them — and a document that fails the formality can fail entirely.

No, and the difference is substantial. In most states a notary performs a ministerial act — verifying who signed. A Louisiana notary is a civil-law public officer who can draft and pass authentic acts and prepare certain instruments. An attorney-notary combines both roles, which is why real-estate and succession documents in Louisiana routinely come from a lawyer’s office rather than a separate notary.

Not for an attorney-notary. A Louisiana attorney who holds a notarial commission may exercise notarial functions in every parish in the state (La. R.S. 35:191(P)), and the authority to administer oaths is statewide for every notary (La. R.S. 35:2(B)). Where the notary sits is generally not the constraint people expect it to be.

The firm’s notarial services are Louisiana notarial services. Mississippi maintains a separate common-law notary system with its own commissioning requirements, and a Louisiana notarial act is not automatically interchangeable with a Mississippi one. If a document is destined for a Mississippi filing or a Mississippi closing, raise it early — the requirement is worth confirming before the document is executed, not after.