Union Parish Court Record Requests
Your first job is picking the right office. The Union Parish Clerk of Court holds Third Judicial District Court files covering criminal, civil, probate, juvenile, protective-order, and non-support cases. A city ordinance or local traffic file may sit with a mayor's court instead. A Justice of the Peace also keeps separate, limited records of its own. For district cases, the Clerk gives you several ways in: online tools, counter service, telephone routing, and a written request as the fallback. The civil records route runs through Clerk Connect. Check the criminal route live, since the COTT E-Search transition language there is provisional.
- Identify the court and collect the case or cause number, caption if known, and the document or date range sought.
- Use the Clerk's current online civil or criminal link, or eClerks LA for the appropriate statewide locating path.
- For a record that is not available online, call the main Clerk line at (318) 368-3055, the civil desk at (318) 368-0692, or minute clerks at (318) 368-8026.
- Visit during the posted weekday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours, or prepare a written request addressed to the legal custodian.
- State whether a plain or certified copy is needed, then confirm the fee, payment method, mailing destination, and current department address before sending payment.
Union Parish Court Records Request Details
A written request earns its keep in one spot. The index gives you a lead, but it stops short of the document itself. Give the Clerk the case number and caption if you have them. Add the document name, its date, and whether you want a plain or certified copy. Include a return address plus a phone number or email so staff can follow up. The official material publishes no single certified-docket fee. It lists no turnaround time, no request form, and no confirmed fax or email copy process. The Clerk contact form can open a routing question. Yet it is not a complete copy-request workflow. Keep a copy of anything you mail, and call first.
The Union Clerk contact directory shows the main line. It also lists departmental routes for confirming a request.
The directory helps separate a records-routing question from a request for one specific district-court file.
Kinds of Court Records
One case can yield several different public products, and they are not interchangeable. An index may name a filing without showing it. The docket, or court-minute record, is the timeline of activity in the case. A document image is the actual petition, motion, order, judgment, notice, return, or service paper behind that history. A certified copy is the Clerk's authenticated version, made for a formal purpose. Land, mortgage, conveyance, UCC, and marriage records travel a separate recording path, even when the same name shows up in a search.
- Public index information used to locate a case or instrument.
- Chronological docket and verified court-minute entries.
- Filed documents and document images, where the account or system permits access.
- Plain or certified copies supplied by the record custodian.
- Separate land, mortgage, conveyance, UCC, and marriage recording records.
Union Parish Court Records eClerks Paths
Civil documents, images, and case information for Union Parish run through Clerk Connect. For criminal material, the Clerk describes online images and index information through its vendor route. But the COTT E-Search language there warrants a current check. Land and marriage records moved to eClerks LA after the October 2, 2023 recording migration. Its Statewide Portal can help locate civil, family, probate, land, and marriage material. Parish Search may put images or copies behind an account, subscription, or purchasing cart. Note that eClerks LA and eFileLA filing links are submission channels. They are not a public docket lookup. The Clerk's e-filing page draws the line between filing electronically and reading a record.
That line matters in practice. A filing confirmation can exist while a public document image or verified minute entry has still not appeared.
Court Records: What They Contain
A Union Parish court file is more than a docket line. The public view may show more or less than the Clerk's complete file. Criminal minutes are released only after verification. Go by the item name the court shows. Do not assume every record contains every field. The table lays out the ordinary categories a request can identify.
| Case number | The cause or case identifier used to distinguish the file. |
|---|---|
| Caption or charge | Case style and party roles, or a criminal charge label when that view displays it. |
| Docket or minutes | Chronological filings, notices, settings, orders, and verified court activity. |
| Filed documents | Images of pleadings, motions, orders, judgments, returns, or other available filings. |
| Setting information | Date, court or division, and the latest available hearing information, subject to confirmation. |
Union Parish Court Records Forms
The Clerk's download library lists a Request for Certificate, a Certificate of Clerk, a Mortgage Certificate Request, and a Request for Criminal Subpoena. It also carries civil and recording fee schedules. None of those form names amounts to a universal certified-copy application. Nor does any of them set a general price for a court-file copy. A mortgage certificate belongs to the recording function. A Certificate of Clerk may matter for an authenticated Clerk act instead. Describe the record you need before picking a form. If a document-specific form or court order is required, the Clerk can tell you. The official forms library holds the available Clerk forms and schedules.
Treat the listed forms as a routing aid. They are no substitute for confirming the right request process for a particular court record.
Copy Fees and Certification
A plain copy, a certified copy, a docket, and a recording copy are different services. They should not be priced as one. Official Union sources state no all-purpose fee for a certified docket sheet, certified judgment, file copy, or search. There is no turnaround time either. The known recording prices below appear only to show why they cannot stand in for a court-copy quote. Before you send payment, ask the Clerk for the current amount.
| Item | Known amount | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Certified district-court docket, judgment, or file copy | Fee not located in official sources | Confirm with the Union Parish Clerk of Court. |
| Recording copy | Up to $2 per page | Recording schedule only, not a court-docket copy fee. |
| Certified recording copy | $10 plus copy fee | Recording record only, not a general court certification. |
| eClerks Parish Search image or subscription | Union rate not located | Terms indicate account, purchase, and PDF delivery may apply. |
Union Parish Clerk of Court
100 E. Bayou Street, Suite 105
Farmerville, LA 71241
(318) 368-3055
Weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; civil, probate, juvenile, protective-order, and non-support departments may be at 207 E. Bayou. Call first to confirm the desk.
Union Parish Court Records and Recording Fees
Recording work travels a different road than Third Judicial District Court case files. The Union Parish Clerk's recording schedule covers instruments like land records and similar filings. It does not set the price of a district-court docket copy. The move to eClerks LA is also why an old COTT subscription no longer works as a recording search route. A name can surface in a court docket index and a recording search at once. That overlap does not make the two records interchangeable. The Union recording page shows the current recording schedule and services detail.
That fee schedule covers recording work at the Clerk's office. It is not a reliable guide to copy charges for Union Parish court records, so ask the Clerk about the exact cost before you order copies.
Access Rules for Court Records
Louisiana law lets the public inspect and copy most Union Parish court records. Statutory exceptions are carved out. Nothing in the law promises that every page will appear online. Nor does it promise that every restricted file can be handed over the counter. Adoption records need a court order under the Clerk's published guidance. Juvenile matters, protective orders, sealed files, and expunged cases carry their own limits. When a docket search comes back empty, the cause could be a protected record, a slow index, or simply the wrong venue. Before filing a records request, look for a case number or index lead. Use the separate Union Parish docket search route.
Key rules: La. C.C.P. art. 251 makes the Clerk the legal custodian and allows examination and copying absent an exception. R.S. 44:31 recognizes an adult's right to inspect, copy, or reproduce public records unless an exception applies. C.C.P. art. 14.1 governs electronic filing and redaction mechanics, including protection of specified personal identifiers.
Union Parish Court Records Access Limits
Expungement paperwork shows why a records process is not the same as public case data. The local checklist can call for a certified dismissal or order, motion attachments, a Bill of Information, an incident report, minutes or disposition, a fingerprint card, and conditional letters. None of that authorizes public release of the underlying materials. R.S. 13:5992 works in a similar way. It builds a qualifying criminal minute-entry framework. But it stops short of a universal document system and does not reach traffic cases. A blank search result tells you nothing about availability. So ask the Clerk about an access order or procedure instead of guessing.
The eClerks payment and document terms spell out the account and document-delivery settings. Those settings can surround an online purchase of court records.
Online delivery terms never override the Clerk's authority. The Clerk still decides whether a given Union Parish court record is public or certifiable.
Union Parish Clerk Department Routing
Union Parish keeps its court docket paperwork with the Clerk of Court. That office holds filings, minutes, service papers, subpoenas, and certifications for Third Judicial District Court cases. The Clerk is an elected official who serves a four-year term. The Clerk also works as an ex officio notary and acts as parish recorder under Louisiana Constitution article V, section 28. The main public counter sits at 100 E. Bayou Street, Suite 105, in Farmerville. Civil, probate, juvenile, protective-order, and non-support work is temporarily housed at 207 East Bayou Street instead. So call ahead before you travel.
Doors open on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For docket questions, dial the main line at (318) 368-3055. The civil, juvenile, and non-support desk is at (318) 368-0692. The minute clerks are at (318) 368-8026. Fax numbers conflict in the official listings, so confirm the destination before sending anything. One more rule: leave private copying or scanning gear at home. The Clerk forbids it unless a court orders otherwise.