How to Get St. Bernard Parish Court Records
Start with the right office. For any Thirty-Fourth Judicial District Court case, the St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court holds the file. Parish Government does not, and neither does the District Attorney. That makes the Clerk the place to go for the official court docket and record. Several routes are open. The Cott eSearch portal offers paid civil and criminal access. On top of it, eClerks LA works as a statewide locator. You can also call or email the Clerk. Or mail a written request, or view a record in person at the counter. One caution: the DA calendar can help you spot a criminal setting, but it is not the Clerk's certified file.
- Write down the 34th JDC case number, caption, approximate filing year, and the exact item wanted, such as a minute entry, judgment, order, pleading, or certified copy.
- Check the public DA Docket and Court Dates list for a criminal setting and eClerks LA for statewide civil, family, probate, or qualifying criminal-minute discovery.
- Use Cott eSearch only if its subscription access fits the request. Its detailed St. Bernard Parish civil and criminal search fields were not visible without an account.
- Call the Clerk at (504) 271-3434 before mailing or visiting. Ask whether the item is digitized, whether it may be inspected, and what current plain-copy or certification charge applies.
- For a mailed request, identify the case and document type and send it to P.O. Box 1746, Chalmette, LA 70044-1746. For a counter request, use the courthouse address during weekday Clerk hours.
Note: The Clerk of Court posts no dedicated request form, payment checklist, or processing-time promise. Ask the office directly about current fees and turnaround.
St. Bernard Parish Clerk Is the Legal Custodian
Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 251 puts the practical record request in the Clerk's hands. During legally open hours, it lets you examine, copy, photograph, or make memoranda of a file. That holds unless another law restricts it. The Clerk can also issue certified copies. Randy S. Nunez is the St. Bernard Parish Clerk named by the court. Statewide clerk directories name him too. The office keeps 34th JDC civil, criminal, traffic, family, probate, and other district-court records. Justice of the Peace courts in Wards A through K hold their own lower-court files separately.
St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court
1101 W. St. Bernard Highway
Chalmette, LA 70043
P.O. Box 1746, Chalmette, LA 70044-1746
(504) 271-3434
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
A quick call saves a trip. Before visiting, ask the Clerk about older files, certified copies, public terminals, same-day cutoffs, or restricted material. The office sets no stated number of public workstations and no universal ID rule, so requirements can vary by request.
Types of St. Bernard Parish Court Records
Not every St. Bernard Parish court record is the same thing. What you ask for depends on your purpose. Maybe you need the timeline of events. Or the actual text of a filing. Or a Clerk-authenticated copy, or a transcript made separately. One caution worth knowing: a case can show a public docket entry while the document image itself stays behind a paywall or is simply unavailable. Custody differs too. A Justice of the Peace file, a federal file, and a 34th JDC file sit with different offices, so the right request starts with knowing which court holds the paper.
- Docket or minute entry: the chronological record of filings, hearings, orders, and results.
- Filed document or image: a petition, answer, motion, exhibit, order, or judgment from the case file.
- Certified copy: a Clerk-authenticated copy requested when official proof of a judgment, order, or disposition is needed.
- Transcript: the verbatim proceeding record created by the court reporter assigned to the division, not by the Clerk.
- Separate court file: a Ward A-K JP matter or a federal case that must be requested from its own court.
St. Bernard Parish Cott Copies Are Access Copies
Cott eSearch sits on top of the official record; it does not replace it. St. Bernard Parish subscribers can pull land, civil, and criminal material through prepaid plans. Get the right subscription first. Then each civil or criminal image or minute entry costs $1.00. The terms carry a caution worth heeding. Online details may stay incomplete or unverified. That lasts until the recording jurisdiction finishes indexing, verifying, and releasing them.
Downloading an image or paying that $1 charge gets you an access copy. It is not a certified one. A court or another legal process may need something authenticated. Then request a certified copy from the Clerk. Identify the exact judgment, order, docket entry, or minute you need. And remember that Cott's pricing is separate from the Clerk's own copy fee.
- Access copy
- An online image or minute used to view information, subject to portal coverage and account terms.
- Certified copy
- A copy the St. Bernard Parish Clerk authenticates under the court seal.
- Minute entry
- The event-level court record showing what occurred or was ordered at a proceeding.
Note: Cott subscription prices can change. Confirm current portal pricing and coverage before paying for access to a St. Bernard Parish record.
What a St. Bernard Parish Court Record Contains
A St. Bernard Parish court file usually holds four layers. First comes identifying information. Then come parties or attorneys along with the cause or charge. A running log of docket and minute events follows. Finally there is the setting or disposition history. What you can actually see depends on the case type and your access level. The DA's public calendar, for instance, shows settings only, not the full Clerk file. No complete St. Bernard Parish abbreviation key is published. Take any unfamiliar code to the Clerk for confirmation.
| Case number | The Clerk's identifier. Preserve the year, hyphens, zeroes, and any slash notation exactly as shown. |
|---|---|
| Caption or charge | The formal case title or the alleged offense or cause reflected in the record. |
| Docket or minutes | Chronological filings, hearings, orders, settings, and outcomes. |
| Filed papers | Available pleadings, motions, orders, judgments, and exhibits, which may not all be public images. |
| Disposition | The recorded result, such as a judgment, dismissal, conviction, acquittal, or other case ending. |
Request a St. Bernard Parish Judgment Precisely
Ask the St. Bernard Parish Clerk for exactly what you need. A vague "court record" request slows things down. The Clerk must sort out whether you mean the docket, the minutes, a signed judgment, an order, a filed pleading, a certified copy, or a transcript. Lead with the case number. Then add the caption, the filing year, the document title if you know it, and whether you want a plain copy or a certified one. Transcripts are a separate matter. For those, contact the court reporter for the assigned division. Do not assume the Clerk's copy includes one.
Division pages list the judge and staff contacts. But the Clerk still holds the case file itself. Electronic filing has its own rule. La. C.C.P. art. 14.1 recognizes electronic filing and electronic official records in courts that accept them. It also tells filers to keep listed personal identifiers out of filings. That is why a public copy may omit or black out protected material.
Certified Copies and Fees
When you ask the Clerk for a certified St. Bernard Parish copy, say the word "certified." Name the exact record, too. The office can tell you whether your purpose calls for a seal, a certification page, or a full exemplification. The Clerk does not post plain-copy, certified-copy, search, or exemplification fees. So ask the office for the current amounts before you send payment. One caution: the Parish Government public-record form uses its own rates. It cannot price a court file the Clerk holds.
| Record-access item | Current official amount located |
|---|---|
| Cott civil or criminal image | $1.00 each after the applicable subscription |
| Cott civil or criminal minute | $1.00 each after the applicable subscription |
| Cott subscription | $20 daily to $600 combined annual, depending on category |
| Plain copy or certified copy from Clerk | Current fee not located; call the Clerk |
| Exemplified copy, search, or transcript | Current fee not located; transcript requires reporter contact |
Parish Government Form Is Not a Court-File Request
The Parish Government records route serves a different office with different holdings. Its own page points court material elsewhere. Criminal certificates and divorce records belong to the Clerk, not parish government. The web form works fine for parish-government material. But it is not a St. Bernard Parish Clerk certified-copy form, and it should never be repurposed to request a 34th JDC case file. A court-record request needs to name the Clerk and the case record itself. Source: St. Bernard Parish Government's public-records page explains this. Court records are routed to the Clerk.
The routing notice is why a court-file request should name the Clerk and case record, rather than rely on the parish form's general request process.
Source: the Parish Government request form shows its delivery choices and copy-cost note.
Watch the copy fees, too. The form lists $0.35 per electronic page and $0.70 per black-and-white copy. Those amounts cover parish-government material only. A court record held by the Clerk falls outside that fee schedule. The parish publishes no court-record response deadline and no denial-appeal procedure. So ask the Clerk directly about timing.
Public Access and Sealed Records
Public access in St. Bernard Parish has limits worth knowing. Most ordinary district-court event information sits in the Clerk index, the minute layer, or the public calendar, coverage permitting. Yet an open docket search does not mean every document is open. Louisiana law keeps juvenile and child-protection records confidential. An expunged record is no longer public. A sealed case or pleading may show up in limited form, or not at all, in an ordinary lookup.
A blank result has other explanations as well. It could be the wrong court, a spelling variant, the wrong year, a JP file, pending indexing, federal venue, or a traffic exclusion. Each is worth ruling out before assuming a record is closed.
Key rules:
La. C.C.P. art. 251 makes the Clerk the legal custodian and generally permits inspection and copying unless another law limits access.
La. R.S. 44:1 broadly defines Louisiana public records while preserving statutory and constitutional exceptions.
La. Ch.C. art. 412 makes juvenile records and reports confidential except as specifically authorized.
La. C.C.P. art. 973 makes an expunged arrest or conviction record confidential and no longer public, subject to limited exceptions.
La. Ch.C. art. 1007 protects child-protection proceeding records and reports.
For a restricted St. Bernard Parish matter, ask the Clerk which access route applies. Staff cannot always share protected content, but they can explain whether a court order or authorized-access path is required. The parish publishes no local expungement fee, no eligibility checklist, and no turnaround estimate, so expect to ask.
Federal Records Are Separate From St. Bernard Parish Files
A St. Bernard Parish resident or event can still land in federal court. When it does, the federal docket is not held by the 34th JDC Clerk. St. Bernard falls within the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. That is an entirely separate system. Federal records run through PACER and CM/ECF. The parish Clerk's Cott and eClerks access layers, by contrast, cover state-court information only. Source: PACER describes federal case-search options. Its current page-billing information is there as well.
Online federal case information requires PACER registration. So never mistake a federal search for a St. Bernard Parish Clerk request; the two court systems hold different files. Source: the Eastern District of Louisiana identifies federal court resources and case information.
The district court is its own venue. Its Clerk, calendar, and docket tools do not replace the state-court file. Source: the Eastern District of Louisiana Bankruptcy Court publishes its contact and hearing information.
Bankruptcy works the same way. That case lives in federal court, and its filings never touch the St. Bernard Parish civil index at the clerk's office.