2014 Louisiana Laws
Revised Statutes
TITLE 44 - Public Records and Recorders
RS 44:40 - Additional copies of records by microphotographic process; purchase of equipment; funds available for payment; copies of suit records

§40. Additional copies of records by microphotographic process; purchase of equipment; funds available for payment; copies of suit records

A. The several clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers of conveyances and recorders of mortgages, throughout the state, are hereby authorized at their option to make additional copies, by means of the microphotographic process, of all original acts and/or records thereof, including criminal records, of every nature and kind in their custody by virtue of their various official capacities as such clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers of conveyances and recorders of mortgages, filed or recorded in their offices prior to July 29, 1964 and subsequent thereto.

B. Such clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers are hereby authorized to purchase the necessary microphotographic equipment and equipment used to retrieve from storage microfilm copies, to lease such equipment or to contract with competent independent contractors, or both, according to the discretion of said clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers, to cause the records described in this section to be copied and reproduced by means of the microphotographic process.

C. Each such clerk of court and ex officio recorder and register is hereby authorized to defray the cost of copying, reproducing and retrieving the records described in this section, including the cost of microphotographic and retrieval equipment and services, out of any funds available in the clerk's salary fund.

D. In the parish of Orleans the judges of the civil district court and the criminal district court, and in the remainder of the state the respective police juries or other governing authorities of the several parishes, are authorized to provide the necessary funds, when such funds are not already available, to enable said clerk of courts and ex officio recorders and registers to carry out the provisions of this section.

E. The several clerks of court, including the clerks of the Criminal or Civil District Courts for the parish of Orleans, shall make and retain in their custody, by means of the microphotographic process, a copy of all original criminal and civil records of every nature and kind, which are deemed permanent under a record retention and disposal schedule adopted by the secretary of state and the clerks of court in accordance with R.S. 44:410 and 411. The clerks of court may then destroy the original criminal records and any other records, the destruction of which is authorized by R.S. 13:917, which have been so copied and retained. However, all records in suits affecting records relating to immovable property, or adoption, interdiction, successions, trusts, or emancipation created prior to 1922 shall be retained in their original form.

F. Repealed by Acts 2012, No. 101, §3, eff. May 11, 2012.

Acts 1958, No. 350, §§1 to 4. Amended by Acts 1964, No. 415, §1; Acts 1972, No. 498, §§1, 2; Acts 1978, No. 365, §1; Acts 1978, No. 396, §1; Acts 2012, No. 101, §§2, 3, eff. May 11, 2012.