About the Allen Parish Clerk of Court
Stacey Hurst is the Allen Parish Clerk of Court, and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory dates Hurst's tenure to July 2020. The clerk is elected by the parish's voters for a four-year term. Under the state constitution the office does two jobs at once: it is the clerk of the district court, and it is the parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. The clerk is also an ex officio notary public and, under R.S. 18:422, the chief election officer of Allen Parish.
A dated account of the parish's origin appears on a neighbor's website. The Beauregard Parish clerk posts an abridged excerpt from a 1940 Work Projects Administration inventory of parish archives, and that excerpt reports that Allen was formed out of Calcasieu Parish on June 12, 1912, on the same day as Beauregard and Jefferson Davis; it describes the three as the last parishes created of the present sixty-four. Wikipedia says the parish name honors Henry Watkins Allen, a Confederate general and governor of Louisiana.
The 2020 Census base population was 22,752, and the July 2024 estimate is 22,501. Allen covers about 762 square miles of land, nearly all of it dry ground; the Census counts only about 4 square miles of water.
The Oberlin office is organized into departments, each with its own page on the clerk's website: Recording, Mortgage, Research, Civil, Criminal, Juvenile, Traffic, and Marriage. Knowing which department holds a record saves time at the counter. For clerks in the rest of the state, see the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Allen Parish
The Civil Department takes civil suits, probates, and adoptions and manages the registry of the court, where money deposited in a case is held. The Criminal Department handles filings for the 33rd Judicial District, including motions for expungement. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the clerk collects expungement processing fees at filing and serves the motion on the district attorney, the State Police bureau that keeps criminal history, and the arresting agency.
Criminal records have a Clerk Connect subscription of their own. According to the Criminal Department page (October 2026), Clerk Connect's Criminal Web Inquiry runs $25 per day, $125 per month, or $1,300 per year, with printing extra, and printed pages are not certified. Certified copies come from the office itself. The clerk's fee list shows copies at $2.00 per page and certification at $10.00 for an entire document when the copy is provided, as of October 2026.
Juvenile files are handled differently. The Juvenile Department page says delinquency cases, child in need of care cases, criminal non-support, and adoptions are confidential and can be viewed only with a court order. That matches the Children's Code, which makes juvenile court records confidential apart from traffic violations.
Traffic citations are filed with the clerk, but the Traffic Department page makes a point of saying the clerk does not set or collect fines. Questions about what is owed on a ticket go elsewhere.
The statewide guides to court records and criminal records describe what Louisiana law makes public and what it keeps closed.
Land, mortgage, and property records
The Recording Department records conveyance, mortgage, miscellaneous, and UCC documents. The department's page says recorded originals become part of the parish archives and are not returned, so keep your own copy before you hand a document over.
Remote searching runs through Clerk Connect's Records Web Inquiry. As posted on the Recording Department page in October 2026, access costs $20 per day, $100 per month, or $1,200 per year, with printing billed separately, and the printouts are not certified. The clerk's site does not list which record sets or years are online. Clerk Connect also lists Allen Parish among the parishes it serves for e-recording. The clerk's Links page includes the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority portal, eClerks LA, for free index searches across parishes.
The Research Department is where deeper digging happens. Its page says property transactions, mineral leases, separation and divorce judgments, chattel records, UCC filings, and subdivision maps are indexed back to 1843.
Mortgage, non-lien, and UCC certificates are requested in writing, and the Mortgage Department accepts requests by fax or email. As of October 2026, a mortgage certificate costs $20 for one name and one property.
Land near the parish line may sit partly in another parish's books, because Louisiana records an act affecting land in the parish where the land lies. Allen borders five parishes. Tracts that cross into Beauregard need a check with the Beauregard Parish Clerk of Court in DeRidder, and land along the Jefferson Davis line may also appear with the Jefferson Davis Parish Clerk of Court in Jennings. Evangeline, Rapides, and the Vernon Parish Clerk of Court keep their own records as well. More on how this works is in the Louisiana property records guide.
Marriage licenses and family records
The Allen clerk issues marriage licenses, and its Marriage License page (viewed October 2026) spells out the requirements. The license costs $27.50 in cash, plus a $10.00 cash notary fee if a notary is needed. Only one of the two parties has to appear in person, as long as that person brings the required documents for both: a certified birth certificate or birth card, a current driver's license or government ID, and, for anyone married before, a certified divorce judgment or death certificate. An application must be filled out first.
The clerk's page says to buy the license at least 24 hours before the ceremony and no more than 30 days ahead, that it is good for 30 days, and that fees are not refunded. That timing tracks state law, which bars a ceremony until 24 hours after issuance (unless a judge or authorized justice of the peace waives the delay) and makes a license expire after 30 days. The clerk also notes that the completed license has to be filed in the parish where it was bought, which lines up with the statute requiring the officiant to return the certificate to the issuing clerk within ten days. Certified copies after the ceremony cost $7.00 each.
Birth certificates and birth cards are sold in the Conveyance department. Divorce and separation judgments are part of the court record and, as noted above, are indexed in the Research Department. The Louisiana Department of Health does not issue divorce decrees; a certified copy comes from the clerk where the divorce was granted. See marriage records and divorce records for the statewide rules.
Courts that serve Allen Parish
Allen Parish alone forms the 33rd Judicial District Court, so the Oberlin clerk handles every district court filing in the parish. The court's website, 33jdc.com, lists two divisions, A and B, and gives courthouse hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. The clerk's Links page points to it.
Oakdale has its own city court. The Code of Civil Procedure lists the City Court of Oakdale with civil jurisdiction concurrent with the district court up to $30,000. Its enabling statute, territory, and contact details were not verified for this page, and no official website for it was found.
Appeals go to the Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, which sits in Lake Charles and hears appeals from every parish that borders Allen.
Visiting the Allen Parish courthouse
The clerk works out of the Allen Parish Courthouse at 400 West Sixth Avenue in Oberlin, which the assessor's office also lists as its address. Wikipedia describes the courthouse as a two-story brick building on an English basement, with Ionic columns, built in 1912 at the head of 6th Avenue and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
Security rules are posted by the 33rd Judicial District Court, not the clerk. The court's site says visitors must enter and exit through the front door, where there is a metal detector; a basement entrance serves people with disabilities; and cell phones are not allowed in the building. Leave your phone in the car. The same notice asks people with court dates to arrive 30 to 45 minutes early, and it refers visitors to the Louisiana Supreme Court's website for updated closure information.
The clerk's site gives office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except legal holidays. Its contact page adds a practical warning about mail: U.S. mail is not delivered to the physical address, so everything except FedEx or UPS shipments should go to the office's post office box in Oberlin.
The Registrar of Voters page on the clerk's site is a reminder that voter registration is a separate office, not part of the clerk's staff.
Other Allen Parish offices
The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Douglas L. Hebert III as sheriff, with a street address on Highway 26 in Oberlin and a website at allenparishso.org. The sheriff runs the jail and, as in every parish but Orleans, collects property taxes. The sheriff's offices guide explains the role.
Lewis J. Williams is the Allen Parish Assessor, according to the Louisiana Assessors' Association, with an office in the courthouse and a website at allenparishassessor.org. See the tax assessors guide for how assessed values are set.
The Allen Parish Police Jury is the parish governing body. The parish government guide covers what police juries do.