About the Caldwell Parish Clerk of Court
Caldwell Parish is its own judicial district, which keeps things simple for anyone looking for a court file. Every case in the 37th Judicial District Court is filed with one office, the Caldwell Parish Clerk of Court on Main Street in Columbia, and that office also keeps the parish's land records.
Cherie Lott has been clerk since 2016, according to the office's About page, and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory dates her current tenure to July 2016. Her predecessor, Eugene Dunn, served from July 1, 1984, to June 30, 2016, according to a byline on the clerk's community history page. Under Article V, Section 28 of the state constitution, the clerk is elected parish-wide for four years and serves as ex officio notary public and recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. State election law makes the clerk the chief election officer of the parish as well, and the clerk's Resources page recruits election commissioners and posts the list of polling places.
The clerk's About page describes a wide range of public services: access to civil, criminal, family, and probate records, case filings, marriage licenses, notary services, and jury management. The office also issues Louisiana birth and death certificates.
The clerk's history page tells the parish story. An act signed by Governor E. D. White on March 6, 1838, authorized Caldwell Parish from land taken out of Ouachita and Catahoula parishes, and Columbia was named the seat that same year. The Ouachita River runs through the middle of the parish, with alluvial land on its east bank and hill country to the west, and U.S. Highway 165 crosses it from north to south. The state's Local Louisiana page says the parish is named for the locally prominent Caldwell family and lists the town of Columbia and the villages of Clarks and Grayson. The Census Bureau counted 9,647 residents in its 2020 base and estimated 9,393 in July 2024, on about 530 square miles of land.
For any other parish, start with the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Caldwell Parish
Civil, criminal, family, and probate matters filed in Caldwell Parish all live in the 37th Judicial District Court record kept by this office. For people who cannot get to Columbia, the clerk points to Clerk Connect, a subscription service for civil, criminal, and probate records that also handles electronic filing. The Resources page lists Clerk Connect at $20.00 a day or $100.00 a month, plus $1.00 per printed page (October 2026).
On the civil side, the clerk's Civil Costs page lists an advance deposit of $350.00 for a petition with one service, and copies of court records at $1.00 per page. The same page carries an announcement that matters to anyone who files electronically: effective January 1, 2026, documents and pleadings that are eRecorded or e-filed will not be printed out by the office. E-filing goes through clerkconnect.com, and eRecording goes through eClerks LA. Separately, a state law required every district clerk to facilitate electronic filing, recording, and remote access through the statewide portal by January 1, 2026.
Requests do not have to be made in person. The Resources page says public records requests can be mailed to the clerk at P.O. Box 1327, Columbia. Louisiana's Public Records Law gives custodians specific deadlines. A record that is immediately available must be presented right away, and if the custodian doubts that a record is public, a written decision citing the legal basis is due within five business days of a written request. Custodians may charge reasonable copy fees but may not charge anyone just to look at a public record.
Some files stay closed. Juvenile court records, other than traffic matters, are confidential under the Children's Code, and an expunged record is removed from public access, though it still exists for law enforcement. For more on how these rules work, see the statewide guides to court records, civil records, and criminal records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Caldwell Parish land records are searched online through eClerks LA, using both its Statewide Portal and its Parish Search, according to the clerk's Resources page. The same page lists land record rates of $20.00 a day and $100.00 a month, plus $1.00 per printed page. It also warns that documents filed before August 2017 are not linked with later filings, so a title search that crosses that date needs a little extra care to connect older instruments with newer ones.
At the counter, the clerk records conveyances, mortgages, and UCC filings, and issues mortgage certificates, under the R.S. 13:844 fee schedule effective August 1, 2017. The posted copy charges for recorded documents are $2.00 per page, and a certified copy of a recorded document is $10.00 plus the copy fee (October 2026).
Seven parishes border Caldwell, so plenty of tracts sit near a parish line. Louisiana's Civil Code sends each sale or mortgage to the records of the parish where the immovable is located. That means a farm that crosses into Ouachita Parish has recorded history in Monroe as well as Columbia. The LaSalle Parish Clerk of Court and the Winn Parish Clerk of Court keep their own conveyance books, and so do the Franklin Parish Clerk of Court and the Catahoula Parish Clerk of Court. The Ouachita Parish Clerk of Court, the Richland Parish Clerk of Court, and the Jackson Parish Clerk of Court round out the list.
Because Caldwell was carved from Ouachita and Catahoula in 1838, very old title work may also lead back into those two parishes' earliest records. The property records guide explains conveyance and mortgage records in more depth.
Marriage licenses and family records
The Caldwell clerk issues marriage licenses, and its filing fees page spells out the rules (viewed October 2026). The license costs $27.50, and the office will not take a bill larger than $20. A certified copy is $10.00 and a plain copy is $5.00, and none of the fees are refundable. One party may apply alone with both parties' documents.
An original birth record is required for each party. If a birth certificate is in a foreign language, the clerk asks for a translation by that country's consulate, citing R.S. 13:3725. Papers showing how a previous marriage ended are accepted from another parish only if that parish's clerk faxes them directly. The license must be bought 24 hours before the ceremony, which tracks Louisiana's 24-hour waiting period, and a judge or authorized justice of the peace can waive the wait. It expires after 30 days.
Louisiana lets a couple buy a license in any parish no matter where they live or where the wedding will be, but the license is good only for a ceremony inside Louisiana. After the wedding, the officiant returns the certificate copies to the clerk that issued the license within ten days. Certified copies of Caldwell marriages come from this office, since the state Vital Records Registry holds marriage records only for Orleans Parish licenses.
The clerk also sells Louisiana birth certificates ($34.00, or $48.00 with a birth card) and death certificates ($26.00), cash or credit card only, according to the Resources page. Divorce is different: Vital Records does not issue decrees, so a certified Caldwell divorce judgment comes from this clerk. See the guides to marriage records and divorce records.
Courts that serve Caldwell Parish
The 37th Judicial District Court is made up of Caldwell Parish alone, under R.S. 13:477. No official website for the court was found during research, so the clerk's office is the place to start for case information and filings. Because the district has a single parish, there is no need to wonder which clerk holds a 37th JDC file.
Caldwell has no city court; the list of city courts in Article 4843 of the Code of Civil Procedure does not name one in the parish. The district court also hears the parish's juvenile cases, since district courts hold original juvenile jurisdiction outside the four parishes with separate juvenile courts.
Appeals go to the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, which sits in Shreveport and also hears appeals from neighboring Ouachita, Richland, Franklin, Jackson, and Winn parishes.
Visiting the Caldwell Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is in Suite 1 of the Caldwell Parish Courthouse at 201 Main Street in Columbia. The building has a long history behind it. According to the clerk, the courthouse square was donated in 1838; the first log and brick courthouses burned; a brick courthouse built after the Civil War stood until 1937; and the present courthouse was dedicated in January 1938 and later remodeled and enlarged.
The clerk's website does not post office hours. Louisiana law sets a default for clerks of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, but an individual office can open earlier or stay later, so call 318-649-2272 before making the trip. The clerk lists payment limits for two services: birth and death certificates are cash or credit card only, and for marriage licenses the office asks for no bill larger than $20.
Public records requests can go by mail instead. The Resources page directs them to the clerk at P.O. Box 1327, Columbia, LA 71418. Include the names, dates, and any case or instrument number you have.
Other Caldwell Parish offices
The sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer, operates the parish jail, and collects state and parish property taxes outside Orleans. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Clay Bennett as Sheriff of Caldwell Parish. A sheriff's website could not be verified during research, so use the LSA directory listing for current contact details. For jail lookups, see the inmate search guide, and for the office's role statewide, see the sheriff's offices guide.
The assessor values property for taxes, subject to review by the parish governing authority, then the Louisiana Tax Commission, then the courts. No official Caldwell Parish Assessor website was verified for this page. The assessors and property tax guide covers how assessment and the homestead exemption work.
The parish is governed by the Caldwell Parish Police Jury, named in the Legislative Auditor's 2020 financial statements. No police jury website was found. The parish government guide explains how police juries operate.