About the Tangipahoa Parish Clerk of Court
Gary Stanga has been Clerk of Court for Tangipahoa Parish since January 2017, according to the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association, which also lists Alicia Fussell as chief deputy. The clerk's site gives his name as Gary T. Stanga. The office runs two locations: the main office in the Tangipahoa Parish Courthouse in Amite, the parish seat, and a second office on NW Railroad Avenue in Hammond.
The recording desk handles a steady flow of paper. According to the clerk's recording page, one to two hundred documents are filed each day in Tangipahoa, and recording and indexing are complete by the following day. The parish had 133,146 people at the 2020 Census base and an estimated 139,823 in July 2024, on about 791 square miles of land.
The Louisiana Constitution sets the core of the job. The clerk is elected for a four-year term as clerk of the district court and serves ex officio as notary public and as recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. The Election Code makes the clerk the parish's chief election officer as well, and jury service is run through the clerk's office.
The clerk's history says Tangipahoa was created in 1869 from portions of Washington, St. Tammany, St. Helena, and Livingston Parishes; the enabling law was Act 85 of March 6, 1869, and the name comes from the Tangipahoa River and the Tangipahoa people. That late start matters for research, because before 1869 every acre of today's parish belonged to one of those four parishes.
The Louisiana Clerks of Court directory lists the other 63 clerks.
Court records in Tangipahoa Parish
Tangipahoa publishes detailed coverage dates for its online court records. Civil and criminal searches run through Clerk Connect, each as its own membership, and the clerk lists the same prices for both (October 2026): $20.00 for 24 hours, $40.00 for 30 days, or $300.00 for a year, with printing at $1.00 per page.
- Civil eSearch covers civil suits back to 1974, with images from 1989, and successions back to 1992 with images.
- Criminal eSearch covers criminal information back to 1901, traffic back to 1974 (the clerk warns details may be incomplete before the 1980s), and criminal images from January 2007.
Certified criminal copies cost $10 per document plus $1.00 per page, and the clerk charges a $20 criminal history search fee when someone calls to verify eSearch results. Civil and criminal e-filing also run through Clerk Connect.
For estates, there is a free resource. The clerk posts Historical Succession Indexes as PDFs, one covering 1864 through 1985 and another covering 1986 through April 15, 2024, searchable by the name of the deceased. Copies of the underlying files can be requested from the office. The first index opens in 1864, earlier than the parish itself, so ask the clerk about any entry from those first years.
Louisiana's Public Records Law sets the ground rules at the counter. A custodian may ask your age and for identification, and may ask questions to clarify the request, but may not charge you merely to examine a record. The guides to court records in Louisiana and civil records explain the statewide framework.
Land, mortgage, and property records
Land research in Tangipahoa starts with the clerk's Land Records eSearch on Cott Systems. A free guest account shows the index only; images and printing require one of the paid plans at the same $20, $40, and $300 levels. According to the clerk, the online land books reach back as follows:
- Mortgages: index to 1930, images to 1972
- Conveyances: index to 1952, images to 1951
- Miscellaneous records: index to 1974, images to 2000
- Chattel mortgages: index and images to 1995
You can search by name, book and page, instrument number, or property description. The clerk does not index by street address and sends address searches to the assessor. Recording is open to e-filers Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., through Simplifile, CSC eRecording, ePN, Mobilis Technologies, and Indecomm. The clerk also runs free real estate transaction alerts at tangi.recordingalerts.com, and it records oaths of office, military discharges, medical certificates, and ordination papers at no charge.
Louisiana records land in the parish where it lies, and Tangipahoa has five Louisiana neighbors plus two Mississippi counties, Amite and Pike. A tract crossing into Livingston is also recorded with the Livingston Parish Clerk of Court. Land that straddles the St. Helena line appears in the books of the St. Helena Parish Clerk of Court in Greensburg, and the Washington Parish Clerk of Court and St. Tammany Parish Clerk of Court cover the remaining parish lines along with St. John the Baptist. The Louisiana property records guide has more.
Marriage licenses and family records
Both offices issue marriage licenses, with different cutoffs. The clerk's marriage page (viewed October 2026) asks applicants to arrive by 4:00 p.m. in Amite or 3:00 p.m. in Hammond. The fee is $35.00 and includes a certified copy of the recorded license. Amite accepts cash, check, or card; Hammond takes only check or card. The application must be notarized unless both parties appear. Appointments can be made through the Marriage License Department at (985) 284-2670.
The license has to be bought at least 24 hours before the ceremony and expires 30 days after issuance, which tracks Louisiana's statutes. Covenant marriage is a separate choice made on the application, and state law limits how such a marriage can later be ended.
Tangipahoa's online marriage index reaches back more than ninety years. The Marriage Licenses eSearch, another Cott Systems membership with a free index-only guest login, has index and images back to January 24, 1934. For anything older, ask the office. The Louisiana Department of Health holds marriage records only for Orleans Parish licenses, so a Tangipahoa record comes from this clerk.
Divorce and custody judgments from the 21st Judicial District Court are filed here, and Vital Records does not issue divorce decrees. The clerk's website also lists birth and death certificate services, and its passports page says applications are taken at both the Amite and Hammond offices. Statewide rules are covered in the marriage records and divorce records guides.
Courts that serve Tangipahoa Parish
The 21st Judicial District Court serves Tangipahoa, Livingston, and St. Helena. The court's website lists elected judges in Divisions A through F and I through L, two hearing officers, and programs that include Adult Drug Court, Juvenile Drug Court, Veterans Treatment Court, FINS, TASC, and misdemeanor probation. In Amite, the judges' chambers are on the second floor of the courthouse at 110 North Bay Street; the clerk lists the chambers' phone as (985) 748-9445, with hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Tangipahoa also has a city court. Under R.S. 13:1952(10), the court is domiciled in Hammond with one city judge and a city marshal, and its territory is all of Ward 7 of Tangipahoa Parish, which takes in Hammond and Ponchatoula; it also holds sessions in Ponchatoula. The court's website lists civil cases up to $50,000, small claims up to $5,000, misdemeanor and traffic cases, juvenile matters, and a FINS program for Hammond and Ponchatoula. Questions about a Hammond City Court case should go to that court rather than to the parish clerk.
Appeals from the 21st go to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit in Baton Rouge.
Visiting the Tangipahoa Parish courthouse
The Amite office is Suite 100 of the Tangipahoa Parish Courthouse at 110 North Bay Street. The Hammond office is at 318-A NW Railroad Avenue, phone 985-549-1638. The clerk's contact page lists hours for both of Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except that Hammond closes from noon to 1:00 p.m. for lunch.
Check fax numbers on the clerk's own site before sending anything. The clerk's fax page lists (985) 748-6503 for administration, recording, mortgage, and jury, and (985) 747-3387 for criminal. The number in the LCCA directory, 985-748-8824, does not appear on the clerk's site.
Both offices take passport applications. If you need a property's assessment as well as its title, the Louisiana Assessors' Association lists the assessor at the same 110 North Bay Street address, Room 102.
Other Tangipahoa Parish offices
The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists Gerald D. Sticker as Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish (LSA directory entry). Louisiana sheriffs keep the parish jail, serve court process, and, everywhere but Orleans, collect property taxes. The sheriff's offices guide explains more, and the inmate search guide covers LA VINE.
Kevin Raiford, CLA, is the assessor, and the office's own site is the Tangipahoa Parish Assessor's website. The clerk's land index does not search by street address, and the clerk refers address searches to the assessor. The Louisiana Assessors' Association lists phone numbers for both Amite and Hammond.
Tangipahoa Parish Government is the parish's governing authority. Its website could not be loaded during research, so this page does not name its officials. See the parish government guide for how Louisiana parishes are governed.