About the Sabine Parish Clerk of Court
Sabine Parish runs along the Texas line, and according to the clerk's office, Toledo Bend Reservoir spans its entire western border. The clerk's website says the reservoir officially opened in 1965 and covers about 185,000 acres, and Census figures reflect it: the parish has about 866.6 square miles of land and another 144.9 square miles of water. The clerk describes a parish about 45 miles long from north to south, with Many as its seat.
Shelly Salter is the Clerk of Court, and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association lists her in office since May 2020. The clerk's site summarizes the job well: parish recorder, chief election official, and custodian of land records, marriage licenses, and civil, criminal, and probate records. The constitution adds that the clerk is an ex officio notary public. The office pays its way through statutory fees, while the parish supplies the building and utilities, the clerk's site explains.
The parish's history runs deep in these records. According to the clerk, the legislature created Sabine Parish on March 27, 1843, from part of Natchitoches Parish, and its conveyance and mortgage books start that same year. The parish is named for the Sabine River. Fort Jesup, established in 1822 by Lt. Col. Zachary Taylor, is within its borders. The 2020 Census base counted 22,155 residents, with 21,746 in the July 2024 estimate.
For contact details on every other parish, use the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Sabine Parish
The civil and probate desk takes divorce petitions, collection suits, damage suits, small claims, expropriations, successions, and tutorships, and the clerk posts an advance deposit schedule for each kind of filing. Criminal pleadings in the 11th Judicial District Court are also filed here. The clerk's criminal page says that under Act 352, criminal pleadings filed on or after January 1, 2026 must be submitted in person or electronically through Tybera. Civil e-filing also runs through Tybera.
Sabine's online records sit on an eSearch system hosted by Cott Systems. The clerk's Online Access page (viewed October 2026) lists subscriptions at $20 for 24 hours, $100 for one month, $300 for three months, and $1,200 for a year. Coverage varies by record type:
- Civil suits: index from January 1, 1985, images from 1998.
- Successions and probate: index from January 1, 1920, images from 1998.
- Criminal and traffic: index and images from July 1, 1990.
- Conveyances and mortgages: index and images from 1843.
- Marriages: index from 1843, without images.
Anything not online, including older civil files, is searched at the courthouse. Louisiana's Public Records Law lets the clerk set uniform written procedures for copying records in its custody, and it bars outside imaging or copying equipment from being placed in a clerk's office unless a court orders it. If the clerk doubts that a requested record is public, it must say so in writing, with the legal basis, within five business days of a written request.
The clerk's Forms page offers expungement forms. Expungement removes a record from public access but does not destroy it. For more on how these systems compare statewide, see court records and criminal records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Sabine's land books go back a long way online. Conveyance and mortgage indexes and images reach back to 1843 on eSearch, and a separate "Index Prior to 1964" tab holds the older conveyance indexes and images (1843 to 1963) and mortgage indexes and images (1843 to 1968). Recording fees on the clerk's schedule, in effect since August 1, 2017 and viewed in October 2026, are $105 for 1 to 5 pages, $205 for 6 to 25 pages, and $305 for 26 to 50 pages.
One warning on the clerk's page is worth repeating. A mortgage shown as "cancelled" online reflects only cancellations made since January 1, 2005. Older cancellations are noted by hand, in red ink, in the mortgage books at the office. Anyone clearing title on an older loan should check the books in person or order a mortgage certificate.
Lenders and title companies can eRecord through CSC, Simplifile, EPN, or Indecomm, the partners listed on the fee page. Because Louisiana records land in the parish where it lies, property along Sabine's Louisiana borders may also appear in the books of the DeSoto Parish Clerk of Court, the Natchitoches Parish Clerk of Court, or the Vernon Parish Clerk of Court in Leesville. Newton, Sabine, and Shelby counties in Texas keep their own records. The property records guide explains Louisiana's recording system.
Marriage licenses and family records
The Sabine clerk issues licenses for $27.50, payable by cash, check, or credit card, according to its marriage license page (October 2026). Allow 15 to 20 minutes. At least one party must apply in person with information for both. Each party needs a certified birth certificate or, failing that, a waiver from the district judge, which the clerk says costs nothing. Anyone previously married brings a certified copy of the divorce judgment. The page also says two witnesses of full age must sign.
The license expires 30 days after it is issued. Louisiana requires 24 hours between issuance and the ceremony, a period the clerk notes was shortened to 24 hours effective August 1, 2018; the district judge or a justice of the peace may waive it. The clerk links a pamphlet on community property and covenant marriage, the stricter marriage form that couples choose on the application and that can be ended only on limited grounds.
The clerk keeps the parish's marriage records, with an index on eSearch that begins in 1843. Certified birth certificates ($34, long form) and death certificates ($26, for deaths back to July 7, 2012) are available in person. Divorces granted in the 11th Judicial District Court stay in the clerk's civil records, which is where certified copies of a decree are ordered. The guides to marriage records and divorce records cover the statewide rules.
Courts that serve Sabine Parish
Sabine Parish alone makes up the 11th Judicial District Court. No standalone court website could be found. The Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts lists the court administrator's office at (318) 256-9789. The district court hears civil, criminal, and juvenile matters for the parish, and the clerk's Forms page links its court calendar.
The Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts lists no city court in Sabine Parish, which leaves the district court as the main trial court for the whole parish.
A party appealing an 11th Judicial District Court judgment takes the case to the Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, which sits in Lake Charles; R.S. 13:312 lists Sabine among that circuit's parishes.
Visiting the Sabine Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is Room 102 of the parish courthouse at 400 South Capitol Street in Many. The clerk's own site spells the street "South Capital," so either spelling may appear on paperwork. Hours posted by the clerk are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The assessor is in the same courthouse, in Room 106, according to the Louisiana Assessors' Association.
Sabine jurors go to the second-floor courtroom when they report. The clerk's jury page asks jurors to call 256-6274 after 5 p.m. the evening before to confirm, and it says the Sabine Parish Police Jury pays jurors $25 per day plus 32 cents per mile, one way.
A caution about the clerk's website: in October 2026 its home page displayed unrelated sports-betting advertising, a sign the site may have been tampered with. Use the inner pages linked in this guide's sources, and call the office at the number above if anything on the site looks wrong.
Other Sabine Parish offices
The sheriff collects state and parish property taxes outside Orleans and carries out the court's orders. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Aaron Mitchell as Sabine's sheriff, with a mailing address of P.O. Box 1380 in Many and phone 318-590-9475; the office's site is sabinesheriff.org. The sheriff's offices guide describes their role statewide.
Christopher Tidwell is the assessor, at 400 South Capitol Street, Room 106, phone 318-256-3482, per the Louisiana Assessors' Association; the office's website is sabineassessor.com. A homeowner who lives in the house may claim the homestead exemption, which the constitution sets at $7,500 of assessed value. See the tax assessors guide.
The Sabine Parish Police Jury is the parish governing body.