About the East Feliciana Parish Clerk of Court
David Dart has been Clerk of Court for East Feliciana Parish since September 2007, according to the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA). His office's About page lays out the three hats the job carries: clerk of the district court, ex officio recorder of the parish's land records, and chief election officer. The same page explains how the office is paid for. No tax money funds it, apart from the building, utilities, supplies, and some modifications, and the fees it charges are set by state statute.
Clinton, the parish seat, is home to the Courthouse and Lawyers' Row district, located by the National Park Service's record at Liberty, St. Helena, Bank, and Woodville Streets. Wikipedia says the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark on May 30, 1974, and that it takes in the 1840 East Feliciana Parish Courthouse and five single-story law offices across Woodville Street, four from the 1840s and one from 1860. The clerk's office address, 12305 St. Helena Street, is on one of the streets named in that record.
According to Wikipedia, East Feliciana dates to 1824, when the legislature split the old Feliciana Parish in two, and it is one of the Florida Parishes that were once part of Spain's West Florida colony. The state's Local Louisiana page says the Feliciana name honors Felicite de Galvez, wife of the Spanish governor Bernardo de Galvez. The parish covers about 453.3 square miles of land, with a 2020 Census base population of 19,524 and a July 2024 estimate of 19,112. Census adjacency data also lists two Mississippi neighbors, Amite and Wilkinson counties.
A state statute, R.S. 13:756.5, authorizes the East Feliciana clerk to keep a branch office. Authorization is not the same as an open branch, and this guide could not confirm one; the clerk's website gives the Clinton address.
Clerks across all 64 parishes appear in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in East Feliciana Parish
East Feliciana's share of the 20th Judicial District Court docket is filed here. The clerk's Court page lists civil, family, probate, juvenile, adoption, and criminal filings, along with issuing process and subpoenas and keeping the court minutes. The home page also posts civil court dates and explains the procedure for appearance bonds. The clerk's civil advance deposit schedule (effective April 1, 2025, as posted in October 2026) lists $400 for a new suit with one service and $400 for a succession, plus $100 for each additional service, and it says mail and fax filings by attorneys are no longer accepted after January 1, 2026. Pleadings go in person on paper or electronically through eClerks LA.
The clerk does not run its own search system. Its website sends visitors to eClerks LA, under the labels "Search, eRecord & eFile" and "Statewide Records Search." eClerks LA, the portal of the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority, indexes land, marriage, and civil, family, and probate records across parishes. The index is free with an account, but document images in a parish are generally sold by subscription, and the portal does not describe a criminal case search. For an East Feliciana criminal file, contact the clerk's office directly.
The Public Records Law sets the ground rules for any request. A person of the age of majority may inspect and copy public records, the custodian can ask only about age and identity (and may require signing a register), and no one can be charged just to look. Juvenile court records are confidential other than traffic matters, which matters here because the clerk handles juvenile filings for the parish. For more, see the court records guide and the civil records guide.
Land, mortgage, and property records
The clerk's Land Records page covers mortgage records, mortgage and lien certificates, and cancellations, and the office is the parish recorder of conveyances as well. E-recording and land searches both go through eClerks LA. The recording fee schedule (effective August 1, 2017, updated January 23, 2026, as posted in October 2026) lists $110 for a document of 1 to 5 pages and $210 for 6 to 25 pages, each including up to 10 indexed names and a certified copy. That page accepts recordings by hand delivery at 12305 St. Helena Street, by UPS or FedEx to that street address, by U.S. mail to P.O. Box 599, or electronically through eClerks LA. It also notes that documents may not be photographed or saved from the office's public computers.
Under Louisiana law, a sale of land is recorded in the conveyance records of the parish where the land is, and the act must name the person who will pay the property taxes and the address for tax notices. East Feliciana's neighbors are a mix of Louisiana parishes and Mississippi counties. Land that crosses into St. Helena Parish is recorded by the St. Helena Parish Clerk of Court in Greensburg, and land over the East Baton Rouge line belongs in the books of the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court. Amite and Wilkinson counties lie in Mississippi, outside the Louisiana parish recording system this page describes. The property records guide explains Louisiana's conveyance and mortgage indexes.
Marriage licenses and family records
The East Feliciana clerk issues marriage licenses weekdays (holidays excluded) from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the clerk asks applicants to arrive before 4:00, according to the marriage license page (October 2026). The fee is $27.50 in cash or by debit or credit card. When both parties are 18 or older, only one needs to be present. A person who cannot produce a birth certificate needs a judge's order waiving it.
Buy the license at least 24 hours before the ceremony; it expires 30 days after issue and is valid only for a wedding performed in Louisiana. Those terms track state law, which also lets a judge or justice of the peace waive the 24-hour wait for serious and meritorious reasons. After the officiant returns the license and it is recorded, certified copies cost $6 each, and the clerk notes they are not mailed automatically, so couples need to request them.
The clerk also issues certified copies of Louisiana birth and death certificates, though not birth cards. Posted fees (October 2026) are $34.00 for a long-form birth certificate and $26.00 for a death certificate, cash or card, issued from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Divorce, custody, and support cases filed in East Feliciana are part of the 20th JDC record kept by this clerk, under the family filings listed on its Court page. A certified divorce decree comes from the clerk in the parish that granted it. More is in the marriage records and divorce records guides.
Courts that serve East Feliciana Parish
The 20th Judicial District Court covers East Feliciana and West Feliciana parishes. The Louisiana Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts lists two judges for the district and two court administrator numbers, (225) 683-4800 and (225) 635-4363. No official website for the court could be found, so case questions for East Feliciana go to the clerk's office in Clinton. Each Feliciana keeps its own clerk: cases filed in St. Francisville are kept by the West Feliciana Parish Clerk of Court.
The Supreme Court's 2025 guide lists no city court in East Feliciana Parish. Appeals from the 20th JDC in East Feliciana go to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, at 1600 North Third Street in Baton Rouge.
Visiting the East Feliciana Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is at 12305 St. Helena Street in Clinton, on one of the streets named in the Courthouse and Lawyers' Row landmark record. Office hours on the clerk's home page are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Plan around the earlier cutoffs: marriage licenses stop at 4:00 p.m. and birth and death certificates at 3:00 p.m.
The clerk's website does not publish an email address, although the LCCA directory lists one; the phone number and fax number in the site footer are the published ways to reach the office. A birth or death certificate customer who arrives after 3:00 p.m. can fill out the form and pay, then pick up the certificate the next business day, according to the vital records page. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association places the sheriff at 12224 Woodville Street in Clinton.
Other East Feliciana Parish offices
Jeffrey "Jeff" Travis has been East Feliciana Parish Sheriff since 2016, per the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association directory, where the office's business number is 225-683-8572. The sheriff's web presence is a page on the parish police jury's website. He keeps the parish jail and serves as collector of state and parish property taxes. See Louisiana sheriff's offices and the inmate search guide.
Jeffrey D. Gardner is the East Feliciana Parish Assessor, and the clerk's website links his office at efassessor.com. Assessments in Louisiana are reviewed first by the parish governing authority, then by the Louisiana Tax Commission, then by the courts; the assessors guide covers the details.
The East Feliciana Parish Police Jury governs the parish. Its website, efparish.org, lists nine district seats on the police jury and names Louis Kent of District 7 as president. The parish government guide explains how a police jury works.