If a party has filed separate suits in a district court and a city court within the territorial jurisdiction of the district court relating to the same cause of action but placing a claim for property damage in one court and a claim for personal injury in the other court, the district court upon contradictory motion, or upon the court's own motion after contradictory hearing, may transfer the suit in its court to the city court if the transfer serves the convenience of the parties and the witnesses and is in the interest of justice.
Art. 124.Forum Non Conveniens; Transfer to City Court
Title I. Courts · Chapter 2. Venue · Enacted 1985 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 30, 2026
In one sentenceArticle 124 lets a district court transfer its own suit to a city court within its territorial jurisdiction when a party has split the same cause of action into a property-damage suit in one court and a personal-injury suit in the other, and transfer would serve convenience and justice.
Full Text of Art. 124
Amendment History
Acts 1985, No. 600, §1.
Plain-English Summary
Article 124 addresses a narrower situation than the general forum non conveniens rule in Article 123: a party who has filed two separate suits over the same underlying cause of action, placing a claim for property damage in one court and a claim for personal injury arising from the same incident in another, where one of those courts is a district court and the other is a city court within that district court's territorial jurisdiction.
When that split has happened, the district court — on a contradictory motion or on its own motion after a contradictory hearing — may transfer the suit pending before it to the city court, but only if doing so serves the convenience of the parties and witnesses and the interest of justice. The effect, when granted, is to reunite what began as one incident but became two separate lawsuits into a single proceeding in the city court.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why would someone file separate suits for property damage and personal injury from the same incident?
Louisiana's city courts and district courts have different jurisdictional limits, so a party may end up filing a smaller property-damage claim in a city court and a larger personal-injury claim in a district court, even though both arise from the same event.
What does Article 124 let a district court do about that split?
Transfer the case pending in the district court to the city court, so both claims proceed together, if the transfer serves the convenience of the parties and witnesses and the interest of justice.
Is this the same as forum non conveniens under Article 123?
It shares the same underlying convenience-and-justice standard, but Article 124 is narrower — it applies only to this specific district-court-to-city-court transfer for split property-damage and personal-injury claims, while Article 123 covers transfers and dismissals more broadly.
Source & verification. Article text is reproduced verbatim from
the vLex (Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, 2026 Edition). Enacted by the Louisiana Legislature.
Last verified July 30, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: transfer district court to city court louisianaarticle 124 code of civil proceduresplit property damage personal injury lawsuit louisianaforum non conveniens city court louisiana