Louisiana Articles & Resources - Hampton Law Firm

Co-owned undivided land in Louisiana can create confusion when family property, inherited land, missing heirs, or unfinished successions are involved. This article explains why owning “part of it” does not always mean you can sell, lease, divide, or clear title without a closer legal review.

Louisiana’s new sentencing laws have changed how many criminal sentences may be served, especially for offenses committed on or after August 1, 2024. This FAQ explains why the date of the offense matters, how parole and good time may be affected, and why families should not rely on courthouse rumors when making decisions.

Judith Hampton reflects on a chaotic bedtime, a mysterious house noise, and the return of Gerald the Friendly Ghost, a family inside joke that turned fear into laughter and reminded everyone that the small, silly traditions still matter.

There are some relationships in life that do not fit neatly into words. You can explain the facts. You can describe the history. You can tell people what happened on paper. But the actual feeling of it — the push and pull, the comfort and frustration, the loyalty and the hurt — lives somewhere much deeper than a clean explanation. A dad and daughter relationship can be one of those things. It is not always soft. It is not always easy. It is not always made of sweet advice, po

I am usually an over thinker, so a lot of my creative writing articles can delve into the harder parts of adulthood, sometimes everyone needs a little light heartedness. There are moments in motherhood when you hear a sound from another room and your body moves before your brain has time to form a single complete thought. Tonight, I was upstairs getting a shower when I heard glass shatter downstairs. Not a little clink. Not a suspicious bump. The kind of shatter that makes ev

When the body recognizes the pattern before the mind wants to admit it Déjà vu is usually described as that strange feeling that something happening right now has happened before. A room feels familiar. A sentence lands in a way you recognize. A moment seems to fold over another moment from the past, even though you know the facts are not exactly the same. It is one of those experiences people joke about because it is odd and hard to explain. But lately, I have been thinking

Let’s say we are sitting in a coffee shop and someone slides into the chair across from me with that exhausted look people get when a simple problem has somehow turned into three problems, a stack of paperwork, and a bill nobody can explain. They say, “I brought my car to a repair shop. I paid them. They kept telling me it would be ready soon. Then I found out they sent it somewhere else, and now another shop says I owe storage fees.” That is the moment when I would probably

A vehicle repair problem can turn into a legal problem very quickly. Most people think they are dealing with one issue: “My car needs to be fixed.” Then the situation starts stretching out. The repair shop keeps saying they are waiting on parts, waiting on another mechanic, waiting on a diagnosis, waiting on payment, or waiting on someone else. Before the owner knows it, the vehicle has been moved to another shop, nobody is giving a straight answer, and storage fees are build

Grandparent visitation is one of those topics that can become emotional very quickly because it sits right in the middle of love, family history, parental rights, grief, conflict, and the best interest of a child. In Louisiana, grandparents may have the right to ask a court for visitation with a grandchild in certain circumstances, but that right is not automatic. The court looks at the law, the facts, the prior relationship, the parent’s rights, and most importantly, what is

Can Grandparents Still See the Kids? Louisiana Grandparent Visitation Rights Let’s say we are sitting in a coffee shop and someone leans across the table and asks, “Can grandparents actually get visitation with their grandchildren in Louisiana?” The honest answer is: sometimes. Not always. Not automatically. But yes, Louisiana law does recognize that there are situations where a grandparent may ask the court for visitation with a grandchild. That does not mean the grandparent

There is a strange kind of absence that is hard to explain to people who have never lived it. It is not the clean absence of someone who moved across the country, changed their number, and disappeared completely. It is not the kind of absence where everyone can clearly see what happened and call it what it is. It is more confusing than that. It is the kind of absence where the person is technically close, technically reachable, technically still alive and available in the wor

More Than a Statute: A Dedication to Penny Hart There are some people who become part of your life in a way you do not fully recognize at first. At the beginning, they may simply be the person you go to for a service. The person behind the chair, behind the desk, behind the counter, behind the title. You make the appointment, you show up, you talk a little, and you leave. Then, somewhere along the way, the relationship becomes something more than the appointment. It becomes t

There are seasons in life when the hardest truth is not that you do not know what to do. Sometimes the hardest truth is that you do know. You know the answer. You know the direction. You know the place you are standing in can no longer hold the life you are supposed to build. What makes it painful is not confusion. It is acceptance. It is the grief of realizing that the next right step may be the very step you never wanted to take, because knowing you have to leave does not m

When One Seemingly Small Decision Changes Everything Regret has a way of choosing one moment and making it permanent. It does not always replay the whole story. It does not always begin with the ending, with the leaving, with the broken promises, or with the final realization that what you believed was love was not strong enough to protect you. Sometimes regret returns to one ordinary moment, one seemingly small decision, one quiet warning inside your body, and it says, this

A Platform doesn't make a post journalism. Real journalism requires real work. There is a difference between journalism and public shaming. There is a difference between asking hard questions and building a public accusation before the facts have been verified. There is a difference between reporting a matter of public concern and taking a private family crisis, stripping it of context, adding speculation, and presenting it to the public as something more sinister than the fa

When families start talking about caring for an aging parent, spouse, friend, or loved one, the conversation often begins with very practical questions. Who is going to pay the nursing home? Who can sign the Medicaid application? What happens if money was gifted to a child? What if Mom can no longer understand what she is signing? What if Dad is still physically independent, but he is making unsafe financial or medical decisions? These questions are not just emotional family

Coffee Shop Series | Hampton Law Firm Let’s talk about this like we are sitting at the coffee shop. You slide the folder across the table and say, “Judith, I do not even know where to start.” Your mother has fallen again. Your father cannot manage his medicine. Your spouse is declining fast. Your aunt has dementia and the bills are stacking up. A close family friend who always handled everything alone can no longer safely live alone. Then the hard questions start coming all a

Coffee Shop Series | Hampton Law Firm Let’s talk about HOAs like we are sitting at the coffee shop. You slide the papers across the table and say, “Judith, can they really do this?” Maybe your HOA is trying to change the neighborhood rules. Maybe the board passed something and nobody remembers voting on it. Maybe you received a letter about a fence, a shed, a camper, a pool, a mailbox, dues, fines, or a special assessment. Maybe there was a meeting, but only a handful of peop

FAQ Series | Hampton Law Firm I have an attorney friend, he's retired from the Louisiana Supreme Court. He's seen many, many things in his time in the law, but year after year our discussion remains on one area of law alone, Homeowners Associations and Building Restrictions. It is odd, yes. It is boring, maybe. But the law and research on this area is actually more detailed and intricate than you might think. Homeowners association disputes usually start with a simple questio

Coffee Shop Series | Hampton Law Firm Let’s talk about this like we are sitting at the coffee shop. You sold somebody a piece of property. Maybe it was land. Maybe it was a house. Maybe it was family property. Maybe you were trying to help someone who could not get traditional financing. So instead of requiring the full purchase price at closing, you agreed to let the buyer pay over time. And now they have quit paying. Or maybe you are on the other side of the table. Maybe yo