About the Orleans Parish Clerk of Court
Since May 4, 2026, Orleans Parish has had a single clerk of court. The 1974 constitution continued two separate clerks in New Orleans, one for the Civil District Court and one for the Criminal District Court, subject to change by law. Act 15 of the 2026 Regular Session (Senate Bill 256, signed April 30, 2026) ended that arrangement. Section 4 of the act abolished the office of clerk of criminal district court for the parish of Orleans "at the end of May 3, 2026" and moved its functions, duties, books, records, and property to the clerk of the civil district court, who is now called the "clerk of court for the parish of Orleans." Section 5 says any law that still mentions the criminal court clerk is read as referring to that one clerk.
Chelsey Richard Napoleon holds the combined office. Her website now uses the title "Clerk of Court For the Parish of Orleans," and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory dates her time in office to April 2018, years before Act 15 folded the criminal clerk's duties into what had been the civil district court clerk's office. The merger changed the clerk, not the courts: the Civil District Court and the Criminal District Court remain separate courts in separate buildings.
The clerk's office also took on election duties that used to sit with the criminal court clerk. Act 15 amended the Election Code definition of "clerk of court" so that, in Orleans, it means this clerk, who serves as the parish's chief election officer.
Orleans Parish dates to 1807, and since 1870 its boundaries have matched those of the City of New Orleans. The Census Bureau counts about 169.5 square miles of land and about 180.3 square miles of water inside it. The 2020 Census base was 384,130 people, and the July 2024 estimate was 362,701. For the other parishes, see the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Orleans Parish
Civil and domestic cases
Civil District Court records are kept by the clerk's Civil Division in Room 402 of 421 Loyola Avenue. The clerk's home page describes its civil caseload as personal injury and accident suits, successions, and foreclosures, plus domestic matters such as divorce and child support. Filings are organized by docket. According to the clerk's civil departments page, Docket 1 holds successions, probate, tutorships, interdictions, emancipations, and civil commitments; Docket 4 holds writs, garnishments, executory process, and foreclosures; and Docket 5 is the domestic docket, covering separations, divorces, custody rules, name changes, injunctions, election suits, and notarial commissions.
Where a file physically sits affects how fast you can see it. The clerk says active cases are in the Civil Division Record Room, successions and domestic cases from 1918 to 2003 are in the Annex Record Room, and completed cases may be stored at a warehouse, which can delay retrieval. For urgent matters after regular hours, such as an injunction, a sequestration, or a suit about to prescribe, the clerk's civil page describes an on-call employee reached through the main number, 504-407-0000.
Remote access to civil records is sold as a subscription. The clerk's online records page (viewed October 2026) lists $20.00 for 24 hours, $100.00 for 30 days, and $700.00 for a year, with a separate escrow account required to print or download images. Civil data entry goes back to 1985, and images reach back to 2010.
Criminal District Court records
Criminal court records now belong to the same clerk. The criminal records offices remain at 2700 Tulane Avenue, the Criminal District Court building. The court's own clerk page places them on the first floor in Suite 104 and on the second floor in Suite 210, while the older criminal clerk website lists Suite 114, so confirm the suite by phone before you go. That website still carries pages written before Act 15. Its page title names the former clerk and its elections page still refers to a Clerk of Criminal District Court, so treat it as lagging the law even where its practical instructions remain useful.
That site describes a closed-records request made by an emailed form, with 72 hours allowed for a response, and it lists the cost of an expungement as $550.00 (viewed October 2026). State law caps the total cost of getting an expungement order at $550 except in cases the law specifies, and expungement removes a record from public access without destroying it. The Criminal District Court's clerk page also links Clerk Connect for docket information.
Statewide background on these systems is in the guides to Louisiana court records, civil records, and criminal records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Every sale, donation, mortgage, lien, building contract, and judgment of possession affecting New Orleans real estate is recorded in the clerk's Land Records Division on the fourth floor of 1340 Poydras Street. The division absorbed three historic offices, the Recorder of Mortgages, the Register of Conveyances, and the Custodian of Notarial Archives, in a consolidation that took effect January 1, 2009. According to the clerk, the Conveyance Office was founded in 1827, the mortgage office traces to the 1760s, and the division now takes in some 50,000 new acts a year.
Index coverage depends on the era. The clerk lists a mortgage index from September 21, 1987 through February 14, 2014, a conveyance index from January 1, 1989 through February 14, 2014, and a unified index from February 18, 2014 forward, with images from 2005. Searching is free at the clerk's office; remote searching uses the same paid subscription described above. Filers can eRecord through CSC, ePN, or Simplifile, but some instruments, including approved zoning plans and cancellations, cannot be sent electronically. According to the clerk's Land Records FAQ, when an eRecorded document is subject to the City of New Orleans Documentary Transaction Tax, the tax is billed and must be paid within 30 days. A Recording Notification Service will alert you to recordings.
The oldest material is in the Notarial Archives Research Center, Suite 360 of the same building. It holds notarial records from 1735 to July 1970, many written in French or Spanish during the colonial period, and it opened in September 1998 to move those volumes out of the basement of the Civil District Courts building. Original notarial volumes can be viewed on the third, fourth, and fifth floors.
Civil Code article 3346 sends each act to the records of the parish where the land lies, so search by where the land actually lies rather than by the city named in a mailing address. Land on the Jefferson side of the line is recorded with the Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court in Gretna, and land on the St. Bernard side goes to the St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court in Chalmette. The property records guide explains title searching statewide.
Marriage licenses and family records
This is the one parish where the clerk of court does not issue marriage licenses. Louisiana law gives that job in Orleans to the state registrar of vital records or a city court judge. The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) runs the Orleans Parish Marriage License Office in Benson Tower, 1450 Poydras Street, Suite 407, and lists weekday license hours of 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., excluding state holidays. LDH's page (checked October 2026) lists the license at $27.50 and certified copies of the certificate at $5.00, and says the license is valid in any Louisiana parish. LDH also notes that no officiants perform ceremonies at that office and that a Louisiana license cannot be used for a wedding in another state.
The 24-hour waiting period applies here too, with Orleans-specific waivers. Judges of the First or Second City Court may waive it for Louisiana residents, and a registered Orleans officiant may waive it when both parties live outside Louisiana and marry in Orleans. Afterward, LDH keeps Orleans marriage records for 50 years, and older ones go to the Louisiana State Archives. Certified copies from LDH can be ordered in person at the Vital Records Central Office, by mail, or through VitalChek for an added fee.
Divorce works the other way. Divorces, custody, and child support are Civil District Court matters, and a certified divorce decree comes from the clerk's Civil Division, not from Vital Records. See marriage records and divorce records for more.
Courts that serve Orleans Parish
Orleans has no numbered judicial district. Its trial courts of general jurisdiction are the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, at 421 Loyola Avenue, and the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, at 2700 Tulane Avenue, covered together on the Orleans Parish district courts page. The Criminal District Court's site says its Magistrate Court sits seven days a week. Act 748 of 2026 is reducing the number of Criminal District Court divisions as judges' terms end, and a separate 2026 bill to merge the civil and criminal courts did not pass.
Several limited-jurisdiction courts sit alongside them. The First City Court of the City of New Orleans covers the East Bank, and its clerk's page says Algiers evictions (ZIP codes 70114 and 70131) go instead to the Second City Court on Morgan Street. The Second City Court lists civil jurisdiction up to $25,000, small claims up to $5,000, and evictions where rent is up to $3,000 a month. The Municipal and Traffic Court of New Orleans hears municipal and traffic cases, and the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court has exclusive original juvenile jurisdiction under Children's Code article 302. Each of these courts has its own clerk, according to the courts' own pages and the Louisiana Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts.
Appeals go to the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, which sits in New Orleans, as does the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Visiting the Orleans Parish courthouse
There is no single Orleans courthouse to visit, so match the errand to the address before you leave home. Civil and domestic filings and civil records go to Room 402 at 421 Loyola Avenue. Land records, recording, and the Notarial Archives are at 1340 Poydras Street. Criminal court records are at 2700 Tulane Avenue. A marriage license means a trip to the LDH office in Benson Tower at 1450 Poydras Street, which is not part of the clerk's office.
The clerk's home page announced that, effective Monday, November 9, 2026, regular business hours for the clerk of court for Orleans Parish will be 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., while the division listings on its hours page still showed 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in late October 2026. The criminal records offices have kept their own schedule. Check the clerk's hours page on the day you plan to go rather than relying on a printed schedule. For records requests, the clerk's office address is cdcclerk@orleanscivilclerk.com.
Other Orleans Parish offices
Orleans has one sheriff. State law merged the old civil and criminal sheriff's offices, and the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Michelle Woodfork as Orleans Parish sheriff (opso.gov). Unlike sheriffs elsewhere in Louisiana, the Orleans sheriff does not collect property taxes. The City of New Orleans says owners pay at the Bureau of Treasury in City Hall, 1300 Perdido Street, Room 1W40. See sheriff's offices and inmate search.
The parish also has one assessor, Erroll G. Williams, who certifies the tax roll to the city's treasurer. The City of New Orleans describes the homestead exemption as covering the first $75,000 of market value (or $7,500 of assessed value) of an owner-occupied primary residence; the assessors guide explains the constitutional rule. The New Orleans City Council is the governing authority of Orleans Parish, and Helena Moreno is mayor (nola.gov). More is in the parish government guide.