About the Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court
Annette M. Fontana is the Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court. According to her office's About page, she was elected on October 24, 2015 and began her term on July 1, 2016; the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) lists her as Annette Fontana. The office carries the full set of duties Louisiana assigns its district clerks. It keeps the record of the 17th Judicial District Court, serves as the parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts, and runs the parish's elections as chief election officer. Its website lists civil, criminal, copy, jury duty, and elections departments alongside the recording side.
The parish takes its name from Bayou Lafourche, and its clerk serves it from more than one place. In addition to the main office in Thibodaux, it keeps two branch offices, one in Lockport and one in Cut Off, each open only part of the week. Louisiana law singles out a short list of parishes whose clerks are authorized to run branch offices, and Lafourche is one of them under R.S. 13:756.2.
The parish was formed in 1807 as the northern part of the old Lafourche Interior Parish, which also took in what is now Terrebonne. Today it counts 97,552 residents in the 2020 Census base and 95,342 in the July 2024 estimate, spread across about 1,068 square miles of land and 401 square miles of water. Six parishes border it. The statewide Louisiana Clerks of Court directory has contact information for each of them.
Court records in Lafourche Parish
Civil and criminal cases filed in the 17th Judicial District Court are kept by the clerk in Thibodaux. Online, the office uses Clerk Connect, which splits its searches into three systems: one for conveyance and mortgage records, one for civil records, and one for criminal records. According to the clerk's records search page (viewed October 2026), civil and criminal indexes reach back to July 1, 1982, minute entries to January 1, 2001, and document images to March 2018, with earlier images available after redaction.
Each system needs its own subscription. The clerk's fee schedule lists $20.00 for one day of unlimited access to index and images, $50.00 for 30 days, and $550 for a year. A related tool, the Court Date Finder, shows upcoming civil and criminal court dates in Lafourche Parish, which is handy for anyone trying to confirm a hearing.
Electronic filing in civil and criminal cases also runs through Clerk Connect. The clerk's e-filing procedures carve out one exception: adoption cases may not be e-filed. Juvenile court records are a separate category again: Louisiana's Children's Code makes them confidential, apart from traffic violations.
Anyone who needs a document the system does not show can ask the clerk under the Public Records Law, which gives any person the right to a copy of a public record unless an exception applies. If a record is not immediately available because it is in active use, the custodian must set a time within three business days for the requester to see it. For broader background, see the guides to Louisiana court records, civil records, and criminal records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Lafourche's recording work is divided between two departments. The Conveyance Department holds original recorded acts from the very early 1800s to the present, according to the clerk, and keeps a public research area with search computers and indexes. The Mortgage/UCC Department issues mortgage certificates and clear lien certificates, records UCC filings and mortgage cancellations, and handles property bonds. Both report to the same supervisor, whose direct line the clerk publishes as (985) 447-3175.
Online conveyance and mortgage searching is the third Clerk Connect system, priced separately from the court searches. Documents can also be e-recorded through Clerk Connect. eClerks LA, the statewide portal created through the clerks' remote access authority, indexes Lafourche land and marriage records alongside the other parishes, and it offers a free alert service for new filings.
The Census Bureau lists six neighboring parishes, so a tract near a parish line may call for more than one search. Civil Code article 3346 sends each act affecting land to the records of the parish where the land is located, not where the owner lives. For land along the shared line with Terrebonne, which was carved from the same original Lafourche Interior Parish, a second search with the Terrebonne Parish Clerk of Court in Houma may be needed. Tracts near the Jefferson boundary belong in the books of the Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court, and land on the Assumption side goes to the Assumption Parish Clerk of Court. The property records guide explains how Louisiana title searching works.
Marriage licenses and family records
Couples can get a Lafourche marriage license at any of the clerk's three offices, on that office's open days, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The clerk's marriage license page (viewed October 2026) lists a $32.00 fee, cash only, which includes one certified copy mailed to the couple after the signed copies come back. An online pre-application is available, but applicants still have to appear with their documents: certified birth certificates, photo identification for the person appearing, Social Security numbers, and the date of death or divorce that ended any most recent marriage.
The clerk's page says the license must be used in Louisiana and expires 30 days after it is obtained. The state's 24-hour waiting period also applies. Louisiana law bars marriage licenses for anyone under 16, and the clerk notes that 16 and 17 year olds need judicial authorization and both parents' consent. Certified copies of older licenses are ordered by a mailed form with a check or money order.
The Thibodaux office also issues certified Louisiana birth certificates and death certificates for deaths from July 2012 forward, in person only, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The clerk lists $34.00 for a birth certificate, $48.00 with a birth card, and $26.00 for a death certificate, cash only. Births of 100 years or more and deaths of 50 years or more come from the State Archives instead. Divorce and custody judgments are part of the 17th JDC record, and a certified decree comes from the clerk of the parish where the divorce was granted. See marriage records and divorce records.
Courts that serve Lafourche Parish
Lafourche is a single-parish district: the 17th Judicial District Court. Its website lists five elected divisions, A through E, split between two courthouses in Thibodaux. Divisions A, B, and E sit at 201 Green Street, while Divisions C and D sit at 303 West Third Street, the same building as the clerk. The court publishes separate docket information lines for civil cases, (985) 447-5550, and criminal cases, (985) 447-5512, and it lists the Lafourche Parish Drug Treatment Court and a Families in Need of Services (FINS) program.
Thibodaux City Court is a separate court that appears in the Louisiana Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts, which lists its own clerk of court. Ask that court, not the parish clerk, for city court files.
Appeals from Lafourche go to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, which sits in Baton Rouge.
Visiting the Lafourche Parish courthouse
The Thibodaux office has returned to 303 West Third Street, and the clerk's site notes that the main entrance is now on the Maronge Street side of the building. It is the only one of the three offices that issues birth and death certificates, and the building also houses two divisions of the district court.
The branch offices follow a split weekly schedule. The Lockport office, in the Lockport Civic Complex at 710 Church Street, is open Tuesday and Thursday. The Galliano office, which the clerk lists in the Lafourche Parish Government Building at 16241 East Main Street in Cut Off, is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Both close from noon to 1:00 p.m. for lunch, according to the clerk's contact page, and each has its own phone and fax. Callers from outside the local area can use the clerk's toll-free number, 866-447-4841.
Other Lafourche Parish offices
The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Craig Webre as Lafourche Parish sheriff (lpso.net). Like every sheriff outside Orleans, the office collects state and parish property taxes in addition to its law enforcement and jail duties. The guides to sheriff's offices and inmate search explain how those roles work.
Wendy L. Thibodeaux, CLA, is the assessor, with an office at 403 St. Louis Street in Thibodaux (lpao.net). The tax assessors guide covers how assessed value is set. Lafourche Parish Government, led by Parish President Archie Chaisson, III, together with the Lafourche Parish Council, is online at lafourchegov.org.