Landowner resource
Louisiana Landowners’ Bill of Rights
(Pipeline Servitudes & Expropriation)
Louisiana law recognizes that landowners whose property is subject to expropriation or compulsory servitude acquisition are entitled to specific procedural and substantive protections. These rights exist to ensure that acquisition occurs only through lawful process and with full respect for private property.
The following principles reflect those protections.
1. The Right to Good-Faith Negotiation
A landowner is entitled to negotiations conducted in good faith before any effort to compel a servitude or take property through expropriation.
Good faith requires more than an offer. It requires a meaningful opportunity for the landowner to understand, evaluate, and respond to the acquiring entity’s position.
2. The Right to Complete Information
A landowner is entitled to complete information sufficient to evaluate any proposed servitude or taking.
Complete information necessarily includes:
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The basis for the acquiring entity’s valuation
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The assumptions used in determining compensation
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The framework applied to account for permanent use, operational interference, access limitations, and future impacts
An offer unsupported by an articulated valuation framework does not permit meaningful evaluation and frustrates good-faith negotiation.
3. Valuation Must Reflect Proper Framework, Not Labels
Property valuation in Louisiana is not determined by tax classification, zoning labels, or simplified use descriptions alone.
Proper valuation considers:
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Highest and best use
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Existing commercial or recreational use
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Permanent burdens imposed by servitude rights
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Operational interference and access limitations
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Risk, maintenance, and future restrictions
Recognized appraisal methodologies—including multi-factor frameworks used in pipeline and infrastructure valuation—are essential to determining just compensation.
4. The Right to Challenge Faulty or Incomplete Valuation
A landowner has the right to challenge valuation positions that rely on incomplete assumptions, incorrect framing, or unexplained conclusions.
Where valuation is disputed, transparency as to methodology is central—not collateral—to the legal inquiry.
5. The Right to Due Process Before Property Rights Are Burdened
No construction, entry, or operational use may lawfully occur absent:
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Valid legal authority, and
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Compliance with statutory and constitutional protections
Louisiana courts have recognized that proceeding without adherence to these protections violates landowners’ due process rights and gives rise to independent remedies beyond just compensation.
6. The Right to Judicial Review
If good-faith negotiation fails, landowners retain the right to judicial review of:
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The acquiring entity’s process
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The sufficiency of valuation support
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Compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements
Courts evaluate not only the number offered, but how that number was reached.
Justin Lamar Winch - Attorney