About the Morehouse Parish Clerk of Court
The Morehouse Parish Courthouse has stood in the center of downtown Bastrop since 1914, and the Clerk of Court's office works from it at 100 East Madison. The clerk's own contact page gives the street as East Madison Avenue, while the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory calls it East Madison Street; either way, it is the same building.
Tifani S. Thomas is the clerk. Her biography on the clerk's website says she began working in the office in 2004 and started her first term as clerk on July 1, 2020. It also describes the projects she has pushed since then: digitizing mortgage, conveyance, and criminal records for online access, and moving the office to e-recording and e-filing.
As set out in Article V, Section 28 of the Louisiana Constitution, she was elected to a four-year term as clerk of the district court and serves by virtue of that office as notary public and as the parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. State election law separately names her the chief election officer of Morehouse Parish. The clerk's Staff page marks both her and the chief deputy as handling elections, and the clerk's election page lists the Registrar of Voters, a different office, at 318-281-1434.
Morehouse was formed in 1844 and is named for Abraham Morehouse, an early settler. Bastrop is the parish seat and its only city; Bonita, Collinston, Mer Rouge, and Oak Ridge are villages. The Census Bureau's 2020 base put the population at 25,630, and its July 2024 estimate was 23,787, a decline of roughly 1,840 people between the two figures. The parish covers about 795 square miles of land and reaches the Arkansas line, bordering Ashley, Chicot, and Union counties.
To find any other parish's clerk, use the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Morehouse Parish
The clerk's Staff page divides the work into departments, each with its own email address: mortgage and conveyance, civil, criminal (felony, misdemeanor, and juvenile), non-support, and a combined appeals and adoption desk. That list is a handy guide to whom to ask. A Morehouse lawsuit, a felony case, or an appeal record bound for Shreveport all start with a different person in the same office.
The clerk links Clerk Connect, a subscription portal that describes itself as providing search and printing for clerks of court. Based on the clerk's description of its digitizing work, the online collection includes mortgage, conveyance, and criminal records, but the site does not publish coverage dates. Before buying a subscription for an older search, call the office to ask how far back the images reach.
The Forms page posts a return date and hearing cover sheet for civil filers, and the Recording Fees page carries the office's "Procedures for Electronic Filing and Storage of Pleadings" as a PDF. The site does not name the e-filing vendor.
Some records are not open at all. Juvenile court records are confidential under Children's Code article 412, other than traffic matters, and adoptions go through the clerk's appeals and adoption desk. For records that are public, Louisiana law lets any person obtain a copy, subject to the law's exceptions, and a custodian who doubts that a requested record is public must give a written answer with its legal basis within five business days of a written request. The court records guide and the civil records guide describe how this works across the state.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Mortgages and conveyances are recorded by the clerk's mortgage and conveyance department, and the Recording Fees page posts the fee schedule as a PDF. The Forms page offers templates that come up often in land work: a mortgage cancellation request, a partial release, a cancellation of lis pendens, and an assumed name certificate for a business.
Online, the parish's own records are on Clerk Connect, and the clerk's LCRAA page links eClerks LA, the statewide portal run by the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority. State law required every district clerk to offer electronic filing, recording, and remote access through that portal by January 1, 2026. Its Statewide Portal index is free once you register, and document images are sold by parish subscription.
The parish shares its Louisiana borders with Ouachita, Richland, Union, and West Carroll. Under Civil Code article 3346, each instrument is recorded where the land lies, so a farm or timber tract that crosses a parish line needs searches in both places. That could mean the Ouachita Parish Clerk of Court in Monroe, the West Carroll Parish Clerk of Court in Oak Grove, or the Union Parish Clerk of Court in Farmerville. The property records guide has the statewide basics.
Marriage licenses and family records
The clerk posts a "Marriage License Application Process for Morehouse Parish" sheet, and as viewed in October 2026 it lists a fee of $33.00 in cash or check. The application must be signed before a notary or a deputy clerk. If one party cannot be there, the sheet explains when a judge or justice of the peace may waive that party's appearance, and it notes an exception for military members. Birth certificate requirements depend on where each applicant was born, and applicants also bring identification and, if previously married, the divorce judgment or the date of a former spouse's death.
The sheet says to get the license at least 24 hours before the wedding and no more than 30 days ahead. That matches state law, which bars an officiant from performing the ceremony until 24 hours after issuance and lets the license expire 30 days after it is issued. A blank marriage license application is on the clerk's Forms page.
After the ceremony, the officiant files copies of the certificate with the clerk who issued the license within ten days, and the clerk sends a copy on to the state registrar. Certified copies of Morehouse marriages come from this office, not from the Department of Health, which keeps marriage records only for Orleans Parish licenses. The clerk also issues birth and death certificates. A divorce granted in Morehouse Parish is part of the 4th JDC record kept here, and a certified decree comes from the clerk. See the guides to marriage records and divorce records.
Courts that serve Morehouse Parish
Morehouse and Ouachita parishes together form the 4th Judicial District Court under R.S. 13:477. The court's website lists the Morehouse Parish Courthouse at 100 East Madison in Bastrop as one of its two homes; the other is in Monroe. Morehouse cases stay in Morehouse records even though the bench is shared. Jury duty questions go to the judges' office at 318-281-0490 or by email to MHJury@4jdc.com, according to the clerk's home page.
Bastrop City Court is a separate court. Its website gives its address as 202 East Jefferson in Bastrop, with mailing to P.O. Box 391, phone 318-283-0257, and weekday hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It lists civil, criminal, traffic, and small claims divisions, and R.S. 13:1952 recognizes it as the City Court of Bastrop. City court files are kept by that court, not by the parish clerk.
Decisions of the 4th JDC are appealed to the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, which sits in Shreveport.
Visiting the Morehouse Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is in the 1914 courthouse in the center of downtown Bastrop. The clerk's contact page lists hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with closings on the dates posted on its Holidays page. Its fax number, per that contact page, is 318-281-3775. The LCCA directory prints the same seven digits with a 381 area code, so use the clerk's version.
The clerk's site does not publish one general email address. Its Staff page lists department addresses instead, so pick the one matching your errand. The site does not describe parking or entrances, so call 318-281-3343 with questions before you go.
The office also offers passport services and posts a passport fee sheet on its Recording Fees page.
Other Morehouse Parish offices
The sheriff is the parish's chief law enforcement officer, keeps the parish jail, and collects state and parish property taxes in every parish but Orleans. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Mike Tubbs as Morehouse Parish Sheriff, at mpso.net. The sheriff's offices guide and the inmate search guide explain those roles.
The Louisiana Assessors' Association lists Carol Lococo Lord as assessor, at 106 East Jefferson Avenue in Bastrop, phone 318-281-1802, with a website at mpassess.org. See the assessors guide for the homestead exemption.
The Morehouse Parish Police Jury is the governing body; it files annual financial statements with the Legislative Auditor, but no official website was found.