About the St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court
Greg Aucoin holds the office of Clerk of Court for St. Mary Parish, and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA) directory shows him in office since July 2024. The clerk is elected for a four-year term. Louisiana's constitution makes the officeholder clerk of the district court, ex officio notary public, and recorder of the parish's conveyances and mortgages, and the Election Code adds the role of chief election officer. On the St. Mary site that last duty shows up as election commissioner training and elections notices, alongside jury duty messages for people who have been summoned.
Census boundary files measure St. Mary Parish at about 558.5 square miles of land and 561.2 square miles of water. The 2020 Census base population was 49,408, and the July 2024 estimate is 46,799. Franklin is the parish seat, and the parish government describes the town's historic district as holding 420 landmark structures along with a turn-of-the-century commercial and railroad district. The parish was created in 1811 and was once part of the Attakapas District and of St. Martin Parish, according to St. Mary Parish Government. The whole parish also makes up the Morgan City micropolitan area.
Besides court and land work, the clerk takes passport applications (the home page lists on-site photos for $15 as of October 2026), issues birth and death certificates, and handles marriage licenses. UCC financing statements are handled through the Louisiana Secretary of State, which the clerk's Forms and Fees page links.
The Franklin office is one of 64 listed in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in St. Mary Parish
St. Mary Parish cases in the 16th Judicial District Court, whether civil, probate, or criminal, are filed with this clerk in Franklin. The clerk's home page points to an ESearch system run by Cott Systems for the civil, probate, and criminal indexes. It is direct about the limits: "NO IMAGES AVAILABLE." Searchers get an index entry and a docket history, not copies of the pleadings. The system needs a login, and the clerk's site does not state a price, so to see an actual filing you still need to request a copy from the office.
Filing rules changed in 2026. According to the clerk's home page, the 16th JDC stopped accepting attorney filings by U.S. mail or commercial carrier on January 1, 2026, under Act 352 of the 2025 Regular Session, and the office no longer takes fax filings after that date, citing R.S. 13:850. The home page says civil and criminal e-filing runs through CottFile, effective July 16, 2026, and that attorneys must otherwise file in person.
The Contact page lists separate email addresses by department: civil@smpclerk.com for the Civil Department, minute@smpclerk.com for court minutes, and recording@smpclerk.com for recording. The general address on that page is support@smpclerk.com. Fee schedules for advance deposits, civil costs, and criminal costs are posted as PDFs on the Forms and Fees page.
Louisiana's Public Records Law lets any person get a copy of a public record unless an exception applies, and the custodian cannot charge simply for looking at one. Some court files are closed by law, including juvenile court records other than traffic matters. For a general explanation of suit files and criminal cases, see court records in Louisiana and civil records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
St. Mary sends land-record searches to eClerks LA, the portal of the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority. According to the clerk's home page, the St. Mary land index there covers conveyances, mortgages, bonds, chattel mortgages, incorporations, notarial adoptions, oaths, partnerships, and miscellaneous records. Viewable images exist only for the conveyance and mortgage series. On its own site, eClerks LA calls the statewide index free once you register, while a given parish's document images require that parish's paid subscription.
E-recording also runs through eClerks LA, and the clerk adds that it accepts CSC eRecordings. Not everything can be sent electronically: the home page says wills and maps or plats are not accepted by e-recording, while mortgage cancellations now are. The Forms and Fees page posts a recording fee schedule dated March 23, 2026, the mortgage cancellation forms numbered RFC 1 through RFC 5, and information on mortgage certificates.
Under Civil Code article 3346, a mortgage on land is recorded in the mortgage records of the parish where the land sits, and other instruments go in that parish's conveyance records. Census adjacency data lists four parishes bordering St. Mary: Iberia, St. Martin, Assumption, and Terrebonne. A tract on the Iberia side of the line needs a search with the Iberia Parish Clerk of Court in New Iberia, and property inside Terrebonne belongs in the books of the Terrebonne Parish Clerk of Court. Land on the far side of the St. Martin line is recorded by the St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court in St. Martinville. The statewide recording rules are covered in the property records guide.
Marriage licenses and family records
The St. Mary clerk issues marriage licenses, and its process starts online. According to the clerk's marriage license page (October 2026), couples apply through eClerks LA, then email the birth records, identification, and other documents to recording@smpclerk.com, not through the statewide site, and request an appointment. The page also asks applicants to submit the online application within 30 days of the wedding date. The application must be sworn before a deputy clerk or a notary, and both parties do not have to be present.
The St. Mary fee is $35.00, payable by cash, check, money order, or credit or debit card, and it includes two certified copies that the clerk mails once the officiant returns the signed license. By statute, 24 hours must pass between issuance and the ceremony unless a judge or justice of the peace grants a waiver on a showing of serious and meritorious reasons, and the license lapses 30 days after it is issued. The clerk's page links the Secretary of State's database of elected officials for anyone looking for a justice of the peace. A Louisiana license may be bought in any parish, wherever in the state the wedding will be held.
Birth and death certificate applications are taken weekdays from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. and from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., per the clerk's vital records page, and death certificates are available only for deaths on or after July 9, 2012.
Divorce, custody, and support judgments from St. Mary Parish are part of the 16th JDC record, and the 16th JDC keeps a family court page for St. Mary. A certified copy of a divorce decree comes from the clerk in the parish where the divorce was granted; the state Vital Records office does not issue them. See marriage records and divorce records for more.
Courts that serve St. Mary Parish
St. Mary shares the 16th Judicial District Court with Iberia and St. Martin parishes. The court's website lists a St. Mary Courthouse at 500 Main Street in Franklin, the same building as the clerk, and the St. Martin clerk's list of district judges places Divisions C and F in Franklin.
The appeal route sets St. Mary apart. Even though Iberia and St. Martin appeal to the Third Circuit, R.S. 13:312 assigns St. Mary Parish to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, whose seat is Baton Rouge. So two cases decided by the same district court can go to different appeal courts depending on the parish where each was filed.
St. Mary Parish has two city courts. The City Court of Franklin was created by R.S. 13:2488.1, effective September 1, 1968, with jurisdiction over the town of Franklin and all of Ward Three of St. Mary Parish; the Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts gives (337) 828-3858 as the Franklin court's number. The City Court of Morgan City is domiciled in Morgan City, with one city judge and a city marshal under R.S. 13:1952, and the same guide lists (985) 384-2718. Neither court has an official website that could be found, so the listed phone numbers are the starting point for a city court case.
Visiting the St. Mary Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is on the second floor of the courthouse at 500 Main Street in Franklin; the header and footer of the clerk's site give the same address as Suite 201. St. Mary Parish Government has its offices on the fifth floor of the courthouse, and the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists 500 Main Street as the sheriff's street address too, so several parish offices share one building.
Posted hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except holidays, according to the clerk's Contact page. Some services keep shorter windows. Passport applications run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, and vital records applications pause over the midday break. The office also announces closures beyond the usual holidays; in 2026 it posted a closing for the Black Bear Festival on April 24. Checking the home page for notices before a trip saves a wasted drive.
The Supreme Court's 2025 guide lists the office's main number with extension 200; the clerk's own site gives the same number without one.
Other St. Mary Parish offices
The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association directory names Gary Driskell as St. Mary Parish Sheriff and gives 337-828-1960 as his business phone; the office is online at stmaryso.com. As in every parish except Orleans, the sheriff collects state and parish property taxes as well as running the jail and serving court papers. See Louisiana sheriff's offices and the inmate search guide.
The assessor, Jarrod Longman, values property for those tax rolls; his office is at smpassessor.net, which the clerk's site links. The assessors guide explains how values are set and reviewed.
St. Mary Parish Government, a parish president and parish council, is the governing body. Its Contact page lists Parish President Sam Jones at 337-828-4100, extension 5555, and its site is stmaryparishla.gov.