Caddo Parish Clerk of Court

About the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court

Mike Spence is the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court, and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory lists him in office since July 2016. The Shreveport office is sizable. According to the clerk's website, it employs 70 people and works with about 900 election commissioners, the poll workers the clerk trains under state law.

The clerk holds an elected, four-year office that the Louisiana constitution defines broadly. The clerk keeps the record of the 1st Judicial District Court, is an ex officio notary public, and serves as parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. As chief election officer of the parish, the Caddo clerk also tabulates parish election results and runs commissioner training, and the office handles jury selection. Two less obvious services round out the list: birth and death certificates, and the Juvenile Clerk's Office, which the clerk has administered since July 1, 2008.

Wikipedia places Caddo in Louisiana's northwest corner and dates its creation to January 18, 1838, from territory taken out of Natchitoches Parish; the state's Local Louisiana page says it is named for the Caddo people. Census adjacency data shows a border with Miller County, Arkansas, and with four Texas counties (Cass, Harrison, Marion, and Panola), along with three Louisiana parishes. The 2020 Census base counted 237,823 residents, sixth among Louisiana parishes, and the July 2024 estimate is 224,893. The parish has about 880 square miles of land and 58 square miles of water.

All 64 parish clerks appear in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.

Court records in Caddo Parish

Civil and domestic suits, criminal cases, and appeals each have their own department in the Caddo clerk's office. The website adds a civil cost calculator, civil minutes, protective orders, and a page for public records requests.

The office has a direct line for almost every task. The clerk's Contacts page lists these numbers (October 2026):

Remote access comes through the Caddo Parish Clerk Connect Web Inquiry, which offers separate searches for property records, civil cases, marriage licenses, and criminal cases. The clerk's Web Inquiry page lists costs effective March 1, 2024: $20.00 for 24 hours, $50.00 for a month, or $500.00 for a year, plus $0.60 per page. Payment is by credit card only, and a third-party processor adds a 3.45% convenience fee. The clerk's header also links a "free record search" on eClerks LA, the statewide portal of the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority, which indexes land, marriage, and civil records across parishes behind an account login.

Filing has gone electronic. Civil e-filing runs through Clerk Connect, and the clerk's site says that, effective January 1, 2026, fax filings are no longer accepted, citing R.S. 13:850.

Any person may obtain a copy of a Louisiana public record unless the law creates an exception, and custodians may charge for copies but not for looking. Caddo's juvenile records are the clearest exception, covered below. Expunged records are also removed from public access, though the record itself survives. For more, see the statewide guides to court records, civil records, and criminal records.

Land, mortgage, and property records

According to the clerk's Property Records page, property records begin in 1839, conveyances have been indexed back to 1914 and back-scanned to 1838, and mortgages are being back-scanned. The Record Room is where staff and the public do research.

Mortgage certificates cost $20.00 for the first name and $10.00 for each additional name or spouse, per the clerk's site in October 2026, and usually take about two days.

E-recording of mortgages and conveyances also goes through Clerk Connect. The clerk's e-recording page sets a few ground rules: documents must be PDFs without password protection, the submitter's card is pre-authorized at 20% above the estimated fee, and the vendor adds a processing fee. The Web Inquiry page also links Clerk Connect's property fraud alerts.

Louisiana's Civil Code requires a mortgage on land to be recorded in the parish where the land lies, with other land instruments going to that parish's conveyance records. Caddo borders three Louisiana parishes. A tract running into Bossier is also searched with the Bossier Parish Clerk of Court in Benton, and land along the DeSoto line may need the DeSoto Parish Clerk of Court in Mansfield. The Red River Parish Clerk of Court in Coushatta keeps its own records too. Property across the state line in Texas or Arkansas is not recorded with any Louisiana clerk. The Louisiana property records guide explains the parish recording system.

Marriage licenses and family records

The Caddo clerk's marriage records reach back to 1838, and the office issues licenses but does not perform marriages. Its Marriage page (viewed October 2026) lays out the process:

• Fee: $32, cash or credit card, which includes a certified copy.
• Who appears: both parties, or an absent party signs a posted marriage affidavit before a notary.
• Documents: certified birth certificates for both parties, Social Security numbers, and valid ID, with listed alternatives for applicants born abroad or without a Social Security number.
• When: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The process takes about 30 minutes, so the clerk asks applicants to arrive before 4:30 p.m.
• Online start: an application can be begun through Clerk Connect.

The page lists an exception for members of the armed forces, who need not appear if the co-applicant attaches a copy of the member's military ID, and it says the office can usually provide a Louisiana birth certificate within 15 minutes, though that depends on the State Registrar. Certified copies of past licenses can be ordered online, and the page gives $6.78 as the price of a certified copy requested from the office.

Covenant marriage forms are posted as well. Couples choosing covenant marriage declare it on the application and file a declaration of intent, and under R.S. 9:272 such a marriage cannot be ended by mutual consent.

The clerk's page summarizes the state rules: a 24-hour waiting period that a district judge can waive, a license valid for 30 days, use in any Louisiana parish, and no use in other states. State law also lets a justice of the peace authorized to perform the ceremony waive the wait for serious and meritorious reasons.

After the ceremony, the officiant returns the certificate to the clerk who issued the license within ten days. Certified copies of Caddo marriages come from this office; the Louisiana Department of Health holds marriage records only for Orleans Parish licenses. Divorce and custody cases go through the civil and domestic filings department, and certified decrees come from the clerk where the divorce was granted, never from Vital Records. See marriage records and divorce records for the statewide rules.

Courts that serve Caddo Parish

Caddo Parish alone makes up the 1st Judicial District Court. The clerk's Judges page organizes the bench by function: civil sections A through C, domestic sections D through F, and criminal sections 1 through 5, along with a hearing officer and a judicial administrator, with offices in the courthouse. No official website for the district court was verified.

Caddo has its own juvenile court. Under the Children's Code, the special juvenile courts of Caddo, Orleans, Jefferson, and East Baton Rouge have exclusive original juvenile jurisdiction. The Juvenile Court for Caddo Parish hears delinquency, families in need of services (FINS), and child in need of care cases at the Juvenile Justice Center, 1835 Spring Street, Shreveport. The clerk's Juvenile Clerk's Office there keeps 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours, and its records are confidential and released only by court order.

Shreveport City Court has four judges in Divisions A through D and a city marshal, under R.S. 13:1952. Its territorial jurisdiction covers the city and the fourth ward of Caddo Parish, and its civil jurisdiction runs concurrent with the district court up to $35,000. The City of Shreveport's court page links the court's own records portal, online payments, and e-filing, so city court questions go to that court.

Appeals from the 1st Judicial District Court go to the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, which also sits in Shreveport, at 430 Fannin Street.

Visiting the Caddo Parish courthouse

The clerk's office is Room 103 on the first floor of the Caddo Parish Courthouse at 501 Texas Street in downtown Shreveport. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists the sheriff's business address as Room 101 of the same building, while the sheriff's street address is on Forum Drive.

Caddo's counter stays open until 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, opening at 8:30 a.m. and closing on legal holidays, per the clerk's website. That closing time is half an hour past the statewide default closing time for clerks' offices, which state law allows. Juvenile matters are the exception to the downtown location: the Juvenile Clerk's Office is at the Juvenile Justice Center on Spring Street, with shorter hours.

Email addresses on the clerk's site are hidden by spam protection, so phone the right department or visit in person. The clerk's site does not describe parking or courthouse security screening.

Other Caddo Parish offices

The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Henry Whitehorn, Sr. as Caddo Parish Sheriff, online at caddosheriff.org. The sheriff runs the parish jail and is the parish's property tax collector, a duty sheriffs hold everywhere but Orleans. The guides to Louisiana sheriff's offices and inmate search describe those functions.

Dr. Regina Webb is the Caddo Parish Assessor, and the office's website is caddoassessor.org. The assessors guide explains how assessed value is set.

The clerk's Links page lists the Caddo Parish Commission for parish government, and the parish government's site is caddo.gov. The parish government guide explains the different forms Louisiana parish governments take.