By Randy Estes, July 15, 2026
If you are hurt on the job in Louisiana, one of the most frightening things an insurance company can say is that you “committed fraud” and forfeited everything, including past benefits. Louisiana’s workers’ compensation law does allow an injured worker to lose benefits for making a willful false statement. But a question had divided Louisiana’s appeals courts for years: if a worker makes a false statement at some point during a claim, does that wipe out all benefits going back to the date of the injury, or only the benefits that come after the false statement — i.e. does the injured worker owe the insurance company money for all of the benefits paid? On June 29, 2026, the Louisiana Supreme Court finally answered.
Louisiana Revised Statute 23:1208 makes it unlawful to willfully make a false statement or representation for the purpose of obtaining workers’ compensation benefits. If a workers’ compensation judge finds a violation, the worker “shall forfeit any right to compensation benefits.” To prove a forfeiture, the employer or insurer must show three things: a false statement, that it was willfully made, and that it was made for the purpose of obtaining benefits. Honest mistakes, confusion about dates, or inconsequential errors are not supposed to count. The statute is treated as quasi-penal, which means courts must construe it strictly and not stretch it in the employer’s favor.
For years, two lines of Louisiana cases pointed in opposite directions. The First and Third Circuits held that when a false statement comes sometime after the accident, forfeiture starts on the date of the lie and runs forward. The Fifth Circuit, in a 2019 decision called Moran v. Rouse’s Enterprises, went the other way and held that a violation forfeited all benefits, retroactive to the date of the accident. Which courthouse your case landed in could change the outcome by tens of thousands of dollars.
In Cousain v. Smitty’s Supply, Inc., decided June 29, 2026, the Louisiana Supreme Court resolved the split and sided with the worker-protective reading. The Court held that when an employee violates Section 1208, the forfeiture is “prospective only” — it begins on the date of the misrepresentation and does not erase benefits the worker was legitimately entitled to before the false statement. The Court expressly overruled the Fifth Circuit’s Moran decision to the extent it required loss of all benefits back to the accident.
The reasoning is practical. The forfeiture subsection (E) does not say benefits are lost retroactively. A neighboring subsection (D) lets the employer recover restitution only for benefits obtained through the fraud, and only up until the employer learns of the fraud. Reading those together, the Court concluded the phrase “any right to compensation benefits” describes how much is forfeited, not how far back. A retroactive rule, the Court warned, would tempt employers to refuse paying benefits early on, hoping for a later misstep that would wipe out the whole claim.
The worker, Johnny Cousain, was injured in a work-related motor vehicle accident in June 2021. His employer paid him nothing. During a later deposition, he testified he had gone to the emergency room days after the accident — but the medical records showed that was not true, and the judge did not believe his claim of confusion. He lost his benefits from the date of that deposition forward and was ordered to pay a $1,000 civil penalty. Importantly, though, he still recovered the roughly 12 weeks of disability benefits and medical expenses he had legitimately earned before the false statement — and his employer was hit with penalties and attorney’s fees for failing to pay benefits when they were due.
This ruling is meaningful protection. It means a single misstatement late in a claim is not an automatic death sentence for everything you were owed. It also reinforces that employers and insurers who drag their feet on paying legitimate benefits can still face penalties and attorney’s fees. That said, the case is a serious reminder: always be accurate and complete when you give a recorded statement, sit for a deposition, or fill out forms. Even an innocent-sounding exaggeration can cost you benefits going forward — and defending against a fraud accusation is far harder without a lawyer.
If an insurance company is accusing you of fraud, denying your claim, or refusing to pay benefits you have earned, do not try to navigate it alone. At Estes Davis Law in Baton Rouge, we handle Louisiana workers’ compensation claims on a contingency-fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Call us at (225) 336-3394 for a free, confidential consultation. Se habla español.
This article is general information about Louisiana law and is not legal advice. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its own facts. For advice about your situation, please consult an attorney.
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