Alienation of affection and criminal conversation are potential legal claims or causes of action against a person who committed adultery with your spouse—the paramour or lover with whom your spouse had an affair. These claims are based on the idea that the person with whom your spouse cheated destroyed or alienated the love and affection in your marriage.

Alienation of affection claims are no longer recognized by courts in most states—but Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah do recognize such claims. And in some states that do or do not not recognize such claims, the cheated-on spouse may seek an unequal division of the marital estate based on fault in the breakup of the marriage.

The details of alienation of affection laws (sometimes called heart-balm laws) vary from state to state among the states that do recognize such claims.

In Louisiana (LA), the claims for alienation of affection and criminal conversation are not recognized. Louisiana does not allow for these types of lawsuits, which historically permitted a spouse to sue a third party for interfering with the marital relationship. Instead, Louisiana law focuses on the division of marital property upon divorce and may consider fault when dividing assets. However, the fault considered in these divisions typically relates to the reasons for the divorce rather than assigning blame for the breakdown of the marriage to a third party. Therefore, in Louisiana, a spouse cannot legally pursue a claim against a person their spouse had an affair with for alienation of affection or criminal conversation.