About the Acadia Parish Clerk of Court
Crowley won the right to be Acadia Parish's seat by a close vote. In the March 1, 1887 vote on where the courthouse would go, according to the clerk's history page, Crowley drew 698 votes, Rayne 560, and Prairie Hayes 519. The clerk's office has been in Crowley ever since, and it says every record of the parish has been kept in the Acadia Parish Courthouse since 1887.
Laura Faul is the Clerk of Court. The Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory shows her current tenure beginning in July 2024. As in every Louisiana parish, the office is elective, with a four-year term under Article V, Section 28 of the state constitution, and the clerk doubles as ex officio notary public and as recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. The clerk's home page adds that the office handles all elections in the parish, consistent with the Election Code's designation of the clerk as chief election officer.
The current courthouse is the parish's third. The clerk's history page says construction began around April 3, 1950, and the building was dedicated two years later to the day, on April 3, 1952, by the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Architect T. L. Perrier designed it.
There is a small conflict about the parish's age. The clerk says Acadia Parish was created in 1887 and that its records begin then. Wikipedia says the parish was formed from parts of St. Landry Parish in 1886 and that the seat was chosen in 1887. Either way, records older than Acadia itself belong to St. Landry. The parish takes its name from the French colony of Acadia in what is now Canada, and its cities are Crowley, Eunice, and Rayne, according to the state's Local Louisiana page. The Census Bureau counted 57,571 people in its 2020 base and estimated 56,604 in July 2024, on about 655 square miles of land.
Every other parish office is listed in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Acadia Parish
The clerk's site divides court work by department, and each has its own extension at the main number. The Civil Department (extension 5000) takes civil suits, adoptions, and successions. The Criminal Department (extension 5002) receives felony filings from the 15th Judicial District Attorney for cases arising in Acadia Parish. A separate Family Court Department (extension 5001) handles family suits and custody matters, and juvenile filings, which are confidential, are combined with criminal non-support cases.
For older civil and probate files, the Records Department keeps civil, probate, marriage, and military records, and the Copy and Research desk is at extension 332. Military records are part of that collection, which matters to genealogists and to veterans' families.
Remote access runs through Clerk Connect. The clerk's home page describes "the Clerk Connect and DocuNet Online Service available to account holders," and the Online Access button in the site header opens Clerk Connect. The clerk's site does not post what Clerk Connect covers for Acadia or what a subscription costs; the only related charge found is on the conveyance and mortgage fee page, which lists $1.00 per copy for DocuNet subscribers who print off-site (October 2026). Ask the office about pricing before you open an account. The On-Line Access page also posts the statewide e-filing procedures adopted May 12, 2025, under Article 253 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Louisiana's Public Records Law covers most of what the clerk holds. Any adult may inspect a public record, any person may get a copy, and the custodian carries the burden of proving that a record is exempt. Juvenile records are the main exception at this office: the Children's Code makes them confidential except for traffic matters.
See the guides to court records and civil records for how these rules apply statewide.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Acadia's land records reach back to the parish's first year. The Research Department says property records are available through a written index and on computer back to 1887, and the office keeps an abstracters' work area with public computers for title work. According to the Recording page, the office records one to two hundred documents a day and finishes indexing them by the next day.
A practical filing tip from the same page: the recording stamp needs a top margin of at least 1.6 inches on the first page. The office records conveyance, mortgage, miscellaneous, and UCC documents and issues mortgage certificates.
The clerk also sells copies online through a joint venture with the assessor. Recorded deeds and plats tied to a property can be opened from the Acadia Parish Assessor's online map: find the property, then open its Documents tab. The clerk's On-line Purchase Policy (viewed October 2026) charges $2.00 per page and $10.00 per plat for an electronic PDF image, with no refunds. The clerk's On-Line Access page also links eClerks LA, the statewide land records portal. The site does not say which e-recording services the office accepts, so confirm before sending a document electronically.
Louisiana's Civil Code requires a sale or mortgage of land to be recorded in the parish where the land is located. Acadia borders five parishes. A tract that crosses into Lafayette Parish also belongs in the books of the Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court. The city of Eunice straddles the line with St. Landry, which makes the St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court in Opelousas a likely second stop. Because Acadia was formed from St. Landry, instruments recorded before the new parish existed would have gone to St. Landry's books. Land on the Vermilion side of the line may be in the records of the Vermilion Parish Clerk of Court, and the Jefferson Davis Parish Clerk of Court and the Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court cover the remaining borders.
Title searchers new to Louisiana's recording system can start with the statewide property records guide.
Marriage licenses and family records
The Acadia clerk issues marriage licenses from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the marriage page asks couples to arrive by 4:00 p.m. to leave with a license the same day. The fee is $32.50 and additional certified copies are $7.50 (viewed October 2026). The marriage page says payment may be cash, check, money order, debit card, or credit card, while the separate Marriage Fees page lists only cash, check, or money order, so bring a non-card option to be safe.
Applicants need certified birth certificates for both parties, a driver's license or state ID, both parents' names and birthplaces, Social Security numbers, and proof of how any earlier marriage ended. The clerk's page also explains covenant marriage, a form of marriage that requires premarital counseling and can end only on the limited grounds listed in state law.
Timing deserves a careful read. The Acadia clerk's page says licenses "generally must be purchased at least 72 hours in advance of the ceremony." That is the office's own guidance. Louisiana law sets a 24-hour waiting period after the license issues, and a judge or authorized justice of the peace may waive it for serious reasons. If your date is close, ask the office how it applies its 72-hour practice. Licenses expire 30 days after issue and are valid only for a ceremony performed in Louisiana.
Family court records stay with this clerk too. Divorce, custody, and support judgments from Acadia's family docket are part of the 15th Judicial District Court record, and Louisiana's Vital Records office does not issue divorce decrees. Certified copies of recorded Acadia marriages also come from this office rather than the state. The marriage records guide and the divorce records guide cover the statewide side.
The office also sells vital records in the Mortgage Department on the second floor: birth certificates for $34.00, birth cards for $14.00, and death certificates for $26.00, with death records available back to 2012, according to the clerk's vital records page.
Courts that serve Acadia Parish
The 15th Judicial District Court serves Acadia, Lafayette, and Vermilion parishes. Its website lists Divisions A through M plus a commissioner, along with pages for Family Court, Kids First, Families in Need of Services (FINS), misdemeanor probation, and specialty court. Each parish keeps its own clerk, so a 15th JDC case filed in Lafayette or Abbeville is not in the Crowley records.
Three city courts reach into Acadia Parish. Crowley City Court and Rayne City Court are each set up by R.S. 13:1952 with one city judge and a city marshal. Eunice City Court is domiciled in Eunice, on the St. Landry side, but the same statute extends its territory to the part of the city of Eunice that lies in Acadia Parish. The parish clerk's site does not describe city court records, so ask the city court itself about those files.
Appeals from Acadia Parish go to the Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, which sits in Lake Charles.
Visiting the Acadia Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is in the Acadia Parish Courthouse in Crowley. Most of the clerk's pages give the address as 500 NE Court Circle, which matches the LCCA directory, but the Contact Us page lists the physical address as 500 North Parkerson Ave. Use the Court Circle address for maps, send mail to P.O. Box 922, and ask the office if you are unsure which entrance to use.
The office keeps weekday hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., according to the clerk's site. Several services have earlier cutoffs: passport applications are taken on the second floor, and the clerk asks applicants to arrive by 3:00 p.m.; marriage license applicants should arrive by 4:00 p.m. Vital records are also on the second floor, in the Mortgage Department.
The office has two fax lines, one for the first floor (337-783-3855) and one for the second (337-788-1048). Recording can be reached at extension 5004.
Other Acadia Parish offices
Sheriff K. P. Gibson heads the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office, according to the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association, and the office is online at apso.org. The clerk's helpful resources page points property owners to the sheriff as tax collector, the role the constitution gives every sheriff outside Orleans. For more, see the sheriff's offices guide.
James J. "Jimbo" Petitjean, CLA, is the Acadia Parish Assessor, and his office's website at acadiaassessor.org hosts the property map that links to the clerk's deed images. The assessors guide explains assessed value and the homestead exemption, which the constitution sets at $7,500 of assessed valuation.
The Acadia Parish Police Jury is the parish governing body, online at appj.org. See the parish government guide for how police juries work.