RAPIDES PARISH, La. (KALB) - Court documents filed into the Rapides Parish courthouse on August 12, show that the Rapides Parish Police Jury has filed a lawsuit against Acadian Ambulance, the former sole-ambulance provider for the entire parish for over 30 years.
In October 2025, RPPJ retained Gold-Weems Law firm to pursue litigation against Acadian Ambulance Service over alleged improper reporting of response times.
KALB obtained the 22-page lawsuit, which lays out nine causes of action that the RPPJ says entitles them to damages from Acadian.
These include:
Enforcement of contractual penalties
Breach of contract
Fraud and intentional misrepresentation
Delictual fraud
Violation of the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act
Detrimental reliance
Negligent supervision and training
Unjust enrichment
Negligent misrepresentation
Under their contract to provide ambulance services to Rapides Parish, Acadian Ambulance Services was required to respond to and address emergencies and/or 911 calls within a certain time frame that changes with ‘response zones.'
Zone 1 (Alexandria/Pineville): 8-minute deadline if considered “Life Threatening”
Zone 2 (Outside Urban Areas/Suburban): 12-minute deadline if considered “Life Threatening”
Zone 3 (Rural Areas): 20-minute deadline if considered “Life Threatening”
However, RPPJ says Acadian took advantage of a rule in their contract and labeled tens of thousands of 911 calls as exceptions making their average response times seem lower.
The RPPJ says they went through 340 different compliance reports dating back to 2019. When they added the removed calls back in, they claim Acadian only met the standard 14 times over six years.
For areas like Pineville, ambulances were required to respond in 8 minutes, however RPPJ says in some months they met that standard just 40% of the time.
Acadian Ambulance released this statement in response to a request for comment from KALB:
Acadian is in receipt of a copy of the filed petition and an accompanying letter proposing mediation of the matter. Acadian, since August of 2025, has reached out on numerous occasions to counsel for the parish to discuss and resolve this matter, and therefore welcomes an opportunity to mediate under fair and mutually agreeable terms. In reviewing the claims made, it appears that the parish is, once again, relying on the flawed conclusions set forth in the Lark Report, previously refuted by Acadian, to make its claims. Acadian firmly stands by the information we provided to the parish for an audit of the response time data, and we look forward to finally clearing this matter up so that both parties can move on with their respective business without further misinformation or unnecessary costs. - Acadian Companies
Read the 22-page lawsuit below:
