Art. 2031.Revival of Judgments

A Louisiana money judgment does not remain enforceable forever. Left alone, it eventually prescribes, meaning the holder loses the ability to enforce it through the ordinary channels of Louisiana law. Article 2031 gives the judgment holder a way to keep that from happening: revival, a mechanism that extends the judgment's enforceable life before prescription runs.

The revival process is deliberately light. An interested party — ordinarily the judgment creditor — files an ex parte motion, meaning one presented to the court without needing to serve or summon the judgment debtor first, in the same court and suit where the judgment was originally rendered. The motion must come with an affidavit from the holder and owner of the judgment stating that it has not been satisfied. Once that is done, the court renders a judgment reviving the original one, with no citation or service of process required for the motion itself, though the clerk must mail the debtor notice once the revival judgment is signed. The article even lets the court order the judgment debtor to cover additional court costs and reasonable attorney fees tied to the revival. Filing the motion to revive itself interrupts the prescriptive period, so the act of seeking revival protects the judgment even before the court rules.

Revival is related to, but distinct from, the general concept of prescription of judgments — the rule under which a money judgment becomes unenforceable after a set number of years, ordinarily ten under Louisiana law, unless something extends it. Prescription is the clock that runs against every money judgment left dormant; revival is the tool a judgment holder uses to reset that clock before it expires. Without revival, a judgment creditor who does nothing risks losing the ability to enforce a judgment that was never paid.

Article 2031 also protects the judgment debtor from an ex parte revival that never should have happened. Paragraph B lets the debtor, by contradictory motion after the revival judgment is signed, have that revival judgment annulled by showing the original judgment was, in fact, satisfied before the revival judgment was signed. If the debtor proves the judgment was already satisfied before the motion to revive was even filed, the holder or owner of the judgment must pay all the costs, fees, and attorney fees the debtor incurred fighting the ex parte revival and clearing the judgment from the mortgage records.