§ 23:251 — Minors under sixteen; prohibited employments or occupations; penalty

Louisiana § 23:251

• Jurisdiction: Louisiana
• Title 23: Labor and Workers' Compensation

Text

§251. Minors under sixteen; prohibited employments or occupations; penalty
A. No minor under sixteen years of age shall be employed, exhibited, used, or trained
for the purpose of exhibition:
(1) As a rope or wire walker, gymnast, wrestler, contortionist, stunt rider, or acrobat
upon any bicycle or other similar mechanical vehicle or contrivance.
(2) In any illegal, indecent, or immoral exhibition or practice.
(3) In the exhibition of such minor if he has a mental illness or an intellectual
disability, or presents the appearance of any deformity or unnatural physical formation or
development.
(4) In any practice, exhibition, or place, dangerous or injurious to the life, limbs,
health, or morals of the minor.
B. Any person who employs, exhibits, uses, or trains for the purpose of exhibition,
or any parent, tutor, or other person having the custody or control of any minor or any talent
agent representing such minor who sells, lets out, gives away, trains, or consents to the
employment, training, use, or exhibition of such minor, or neglects or refuses to restrain such
minor from training, engaging, or acting in any of the above mentioned exhibitions or
performances, shall be guilty of contributing to the delinquency of minors, and upon
conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned for not
more than two years, or both.
C. Any person violating the provisions of this Section shall, in addition to the
criminal penalty provided in Subsection B, be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed five
hundred dollars.
D. Reasonable litigation expenses may be awarded to the prevailing party of the
adjudicatory hearing. "Reasonable litigation expenses" means any expenses, not exceeding
seven thousand five hundred dollars, reasonably incurred in prosecuting, opposing, or
contesting an agency action, including but not limited to attorney fees, stenographer fees,
investigative fees and expenses, witness fees and expenses, and administrative costs.
E. Civil penalties for violation of this Section may be imposed by Louisiana Works
only by a ruling of the secretary pursuant to an adjudicatory hearing held in accordance with
the Administrative Procedure Act.
F. The secretary may institute civil proceedings in the Nineteenth Judicial District
Court to enforce his rulings. The court shall award to the prevailing party reasonable
attorney fees and judicial interest on such civil penalties from the date of judgment until paid
and all court costs.
G. The secretary may institute civil proceedings in the Nineteenth Judicial District
Court seeking injunctive relief to restrain and prevent violations of the provisions of this
Section or of the rules and regulations adopted under the provisions of this Section. The
court shall award reasonable attorney fees and court costs to the prevailing party.
H. The secretary is empowered to enforce the civil provisions of this Section and to
adopt and promulgate such reasonable rules and regulations and to conduct such
investigations as he deems necessary to ensure enforcement of this Section.

Legislative History

Acts 1992, No. 444, §1; Acts 1993, No. 611, §1, eff. June 15, 1993; Acts 2008, No. 743, §7, eff. July 1, 2008; Acts 2011, No. 177, §1; Acts 2014, No. 811, §12, eff. June 23, 2014.