About the St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court
Laura B. Blanchard is the Clerk of Court for St. Martin Parish. The Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory lists her as Laura Blanchard, in office since July 2024, and her own website adds the middle initial. Article V, Section 28 of the Louisiana Constitution makes this an elected post with a four-year term, and it gives every clerk two standing extra jobs: serving ex officio as a notary public and as the parish's recorder of conveyances and mortgages. R.S. 18:422 adds a third, chief election officer of the parish, and the clerk's services list includes an Elections Department as well as jury duty.
St. Martin Parish comes in two separate pieces, Upper and Lower St. Martin, because Iberia Parish, created in 1868, lies between them. Both pieces belong to this one clerk. The parish sits in the Atchafalaya Basin, Bayou Teche runs through it, and its seat carries the same saint's name. St. Martin and St. Mary were both formed in 1811 from parts of the old Attakapas Parish. Census figures put the 2020 base population at 51,746 and the July 2024 estimate at 51,218, across roughly 737.5 square miles of land and about 79 square miles of water.
Two lines on the clerk's website say something about the office itself. The home page notes that the staff speak both English and French. The Copy and Research Department reports that the office holds St. Martin Parish land records going back to 1763 and marriage records back to 1937. Beyond court and land work, the office processes birth and death certificates and accepts passport applications.
Contact details for the clerks of all 64 parishes are collected in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in St. Martin Parish
Suits filed in St. Martin Parish in the 16th Judicial District Court are kept by this clerk. Work is divided among a Civil Department, a Criminal Department, and a section that handles juvenile and non-support (child support) matters. The clerk's site says juvenile information is confidential, which matches Article 412 of the Children's Code: records of juvenile court proceedings, other than traffic violations, are not open to the public.
For remote searching, the clerk offers a paid subscription, and its search link points to a cotthosting.com login. Its Online Records page (viewed October 2026) says subscribers can view mortgage, conveyance, civil, and criminal files, and that copies of many documents cost $1.00 per page. The page introduces a list of subscription fees, but the amounts did not appear in the text reviewed for this guide, so ask the office for current pricing before you sign up. The same page also links eClerks LA, the portal run by the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority. That portal searches land, marriage, and civil indexes across parishes with a free account, while document images in a given parish usually sit behind that parish's paid subscription.
The Criminal Department runs background checks, limited to St. Martin Parish records in the 16th JDC; the department says city and town court matters will not appear on them. Its posted charges (October 2026) are a $20.00 processing fee for a background check, which requires a copy of the requester's driver's license, $1.00 per page for copies, $5.00 per page for certified copies, and $15.00 for a certified extract of minutes, plus 4% on credit card payments. The department says it will not give case information over the phone and cannot give legal advice. Expungement motions are filed here too, and the clerk asks filers to allow at least 90 days, or at least two weeks for a motion and order to set aside a conviction and dismiss the prosecution. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, an expungement takes a record out of public access; it does not destroy it.
Electronic filing of pleadings in civil and criminal cases moved to CottFile starting October 1, 2026, according to the department pages, which also cite Act 352 of the 2025 Regular Session (effective January 1, 2026) and describe filings as made in person or electronically. The Civil Department posts forms such as a Certificate of Divorce and an in forma pauperis affidavit. For how St. Martin suit files and criminal cases fit the statewide system, see court records in Louisiana and criminal records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
The Recording Department takes conveyances, mortgages, and other instruments, and a separate Mortgage Department handles that side of the books. E-recording is available through three vendors named on the clerk's site: EPN, CSC, and Simplifile. According to the recording fee page (October 2026), the basic fee covers indexing up to 10 names and certifying the enclosed copy. The page says all recording fees include two $5.00 per-document charges: a Louisiana Clerk of Court Remote Access fee and a Parish Government fee "assessed in Iberia and St. Martin Parishes only."
Older instruments are the job of the Copy and Research Department, which handles land and marriage records. The clerk says land records can be requested by calling the Research Department at 337-394-2210 or by visiting the office.
The Civil Code sends a sale or mortgage of land to the records of the parish where the land sits, and a recorded act of sale must name who will pay the property taxes and where the tax notices go. St. Martin's split shape makes that rule worth watching. Because Iberia Parish separates the upper and lower parts, a title search in this area can move back and forth between St. Martinville and the Iberia Parish Clerk of Court in New Iberia. Census adjacency data also lists Lafayette and St. Landry among the parishes that border St. Martin, so a tract near a parish line may call for a check with the Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court or the St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court in Opelousas. Recording rules that apply in St. Martinville, as in every parish, are summarized in the Louisiana property records guide.
Marriage licenses and family records
St. Martin Parish licenses are issued by the clerk. According to the clerk's marriage page (October 2026), the fee is $35.00, and that price includes a certified copy mailed to the couple after the ceremony. Cash, check, money order, and credit or debit cards are accepted, with a 4% fee on card payments. Applications are processed weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., and at least one party must sign the form in front of a deputy clerk.
Birth certificate rules on the page depend on where each person was born. A Louisiana short-form birth card is accepted, a short form from another state is not, and foreign-born applicants have added requirements. Couples choosing a covenant marriage bring the signed Covenant Marriage Declaration. State law sets a 24-hour wait between issuance and the ceremony, which a judge or justice of the peace may waive for serious and meritorious reasons; the clerk's page says the waiver costs nothing here. The license is good for 30 days, and within ten days of the wedding the officiant files the completed copies with the clerk who issued it. St. Martin marriage records at the clerk run back to 1937.
Divorce judgments, custody rulings, and support orders granted in St. Martin Parish become part of the 16th JDC record kept by this clerk. A divorce can be filed in the parish where either spouse is domiciled or in the parish of the last matrimonial domicile, and that venue rule cannot be waived. The clerk's non-support page explains that an appeal in a child support matter is set for hearing before a district judge. See marriage records and divorce records for the statewide picture.
Courts that serve St. Martin Parish
The 16th Judicial District Court covers three parishes: St. Martin, Iberia, and St. Mary. Its website lists Divisions A through H and keeps a separate family court page for each parish, including St. Martin. The clerk's District Judges page says Divisions A, B, and G sit in St. Martinville at 415 South Main Street.
Appeals are where St. Martin parts ways with one of its district partners. St. Martin and Iberia appeal to the Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, which sits in Lake Charles, while St. Mary Parish cases from the same district court go to the First Circuit in Baton Rouge, under R.S. 13:312. In a 16th JDC case, the parish the case comes from determines which circuit hears the appeal.
One city court operates inside the parish. The City Court of Breaux Bridge was created by R.S. 13:2488.71, sits in Breaux Bridge, and has territorial jurisdiction over the town and all of Ward 4 of St. Martin Parish. For contact, the Louisiana Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts gives (337) 332-4117; no official website for the court was found. The clerk's Criminal Department notes that its background checks leave out city and town court matters, so a search for a Breaux Bridge City Court case has to start with that court.
Visiting the St. Martin Parish courthouse
Two street names show up for the courthouse complex, and the clerk's contact page helps sort them out. It says the clerk's office is in the Courthouse Annex on St. Martin Street, behind the St. Martin Parish Courthouse building, and gives the address as 415 St. Martin Street. The 16th JDC's website lists the courthouse itself at 415 S. Main St., and the clerk's District Judges page places the St. Martinville divisions at 415 South Main Street. The clerk's counters are in that Annex, and the contact page adds that parking is available in the large lot next to the Annex.
According to the contact page, the office is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but several services stop earlier. Birth and death certificates are processed until 3:45 p.m. (the marriage page gives the same 3:45 p.m. cutoff for license applications), and passport applications run until 3:30 p.m.; the clerk asks passport applicants to call for availability before coming in. Civil and criminal matters have their own fax lines, 337-394-2240 and 337-394-8404. The contact page lists phone and fax numbers but no email address.
The clerk's Parish Officials page lists the assessor's office at the same 415 St. Martin Street address, with its own phone, 337-394-2208.
Other St. Martin Parish offices
The sheriff is the parish's chief law enforcement officer and, everywhere outside Orleans, the collector of state and parish property taxes. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Becket Breaux as St. Martin Parish Sheriff, with a business line of 337-394-3071 and the correctional center at 400 St. Martin Street. His office is online at stmartinsheriff.org. The guide to Louisiana sheriff's offices covers jails, civil process, and tax collection.
R. Todd Dugas, CLA, is the St. Martin Parish Assessor. His website offers a property search and a GIS map, and assessment values feed the tax bills the sheriff collects. The assessors and property tax guide explains the homestead exemption, worth $7,500 of assessed valuation under Article VII, Section 20 of the constitution.
The parish is governed by St. Martin Parish Government, a parish president and parish council, with offices at 301 West Port Street in St. Martinville. Pete Delcambre is listed as parish president on stmartinparish.net. See the parish government guide for how councils and police juries differ.