Search St. Bernard Parish Court Records
The main local online route is the St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court Public Records Search. It is an official Clerk portal for indexed records, but it is not a free open search. The portal requires a User ID, password, account setup, and a subscription that matches the record group being searched. Civil, criminal, and land records are sold as separate daily, monthly, or yearly access plans, and the portal lists $1 image or minute charges for several record types.
The portal login page also tells users to check certified dates before relying on an index. That matters in St. Bernard Parish because an older case, a recently filed matter, a sealed file, or a record outside the Clerk's custody may not appear in the same online search. When the online route fails, the fallback is the Clerk's office at the courthouse, the Sheriff's Office for law-enforcement reports, the parish public-records form for parish-government records, or the correct Justice of the Peace district for lower-court matters.
The Clerk public-records login page is shown in the local source capture used for St. Bernard Parish court records.
That login screen is useful because it shows the access limits before a user pays for a subscription.
- Open the Clerk public-records portal and create an account or sign in.
- Review certified dates and browser requirements before paying for access.
- Choose the civil, criminal, land, or combined subscription that matches the file.
- Search by the available party, case, or index fields after login.
- Use the Clerk by phone, mail, or in person when a file is older, restricted, or not indexed.
St. Bernard Parish Court System
The primary trial court is the Thirty-Fourth Judicial District Court. It states that it has original jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters in St. Bernard Parish. The court sits in Chalmette and is divided into five elected divisions, A through E. The Clerk of Court, District Attorney, indigent defender, drug court administrator, and language access coordinator are all named through the official 34th JDC court site.
The 34th JDC homepage gives the local court address, divisions, and court-office contacts.
The district-court source is the safest starting point for division contacts, language access, orders, and magistrate information.
| Court or Office | Role in St. Bernard Parish | Common Record Path |
|---|---|---|
| 34th Judicial District Court | General civil and criminal trial court | Clerk filings, minutes, orders, dockets |
| Clerk of Court | Custodian for district-court and related parish records | Online portal, counter, mail, phone |
| 44th Justice of the Peace Courts | Lower local matters by district A through K | Contact the assigned JP district |
| Louisiana Fourth Circuit | State appellate review for the region | Appeal records after district-court judgment |
| Eastern District of Louisiana | Federal trial court for the parish | PACER and federal clerk systems |
St. Bernard Parish Clerk Records
Randy S. Nunez is the St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court. The Clerk's office is the record hub for civil, criminal, land, mortgage, marriage, divorce, probate, and succession material filed through the district-court system. The official local court address is 1101 W. St. Bernard Highway, Chalmette, LA 70043. The Clerk phone is 504-271-3434, and the mailing address listed in state sources is P.O. Box 1746, Chalmette, LA 70044-1746.
St. Bernard Parish government is a separate custodian. Its public-records page is very clear that parish government does not maintain marriage certificates, divorce certificates, criminal certificates, or police reports. That warning saves time. Court records and vital court certificates route to the Clerk. Police reports route to the Sheriff's Office. Parish administrative files route through parish government.
| Clerk Portal Field | What It Means |
|---|---|
| User ID | Required account login for the Clerk search portal. |
| Password | Case-sensitive password for the account. |
| Certified Dates | Index coverage users should review before searching. |
| Subscription Category | Land, civil, criminal, or combined plans after login. |
| Purchase History | Visible account and payment support on the portal. |
St. Bernard Parish Record Types
Civil court records can include petitions, answers, motions, service returns, minute entries, judgments, liens, garnishments, and appeal notices. Criminal court records can include bills of information or indictments, filed charges, arraignment entries, pleas, bond orders, motions, hearing minutes, sentencing, probation terms, and dispositions. Family and divorce records are district-court civil or family files, but financial identifiers, custody matters, support details, and protective orders may be redacted or restricted.
Probate is usually called succession in Louisiana. St. Bernard Parish succession files may include wills, affidavits of death and heirship, inventories, judgments of possession, letters of administration, bonds, notices, and accountings. Traffic citation records may begin through the Sheriff's Office nCourt payment portal, while contested or mandatory-appearance matters can become court records. Juvenile records are not treated like ordinary public court files.
- Civil records: lawsuits, judgments, service returns, liens, and garnishments.
- Criminal records: filed charges, hearings, pleas, dispositions, and sentences.
- Family records: divorce, support, custody, and protective-order matters with privacy limits.
- Succession records: probate files, wills, estate filings, and judgments of possession.
- Traffic records: citations, mandatory appearances, payment status, and court minutes when contested.
St. Bernard Parish JP Courts
Lower local matters can involve the 44th Justice of the Peace Courts and Constables. St. Bernard Parish lists districts A through K, each with a judge and constable contact. These courts matter for small local civil disputes, evictions, certain warrants, and lower-level proceedings that may not start in the Clerk's district-court portal. A person with a bench warrant or civil process issue should not assume the 34th JDC is the only possible source.
The official parish page for the 44th Justice of the Peace Courts and Constables lists the district contacts.
That page is the local source to use when a matter belongs to a JP district rather than the district court.
St. Bernard Parish Criminal Records
After an arrest, the record path changes as the case moves. The Sheriff's Office handles transport, intake, booking, custody status, police reports, incident reports, accident reports, incarceration letters, background checks, and body-camera footage. The District Attorney decides whether to accept or file charges. Once a criminal case opens in the 34th JDC, the Clerk's criminal records and minutes become the court-record route for charges as filed, hearings, pleas, dispositions, and sentences.
Case flow: arrest or citation › booking or summons › magistrate or bond setting › DA screening › filed charge › arraignment › plea or trial › disposition › sentence or release. LAVNS and VINELink can help with custody status, but they do not prove guilt or final case outcome.
The Sheriff's Office operates the Parish Prison at 1900 Paris Road in Chalmette. SBSO lists Corrections or Parish Prison at 504-278-7645, while the Louisiana DPS&C local jail listing also gives 504-278-7650. The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff LA app is documented in the app stores for tips, reports, public-safety news, and interactive features, but no app-only inmate or warrant lookup was confirmed.
St. Bernard Parish Warrant Records
No official public St. Bernard Parish active-warrant search page was located in the research. That is important. A warrant check should use official offices, not unofficial lists. Start with the Sheriff's Office main line or records contacts, the Clerk when a known court case exists, the assigned 34th JDC division for a missed district-court date, or the relevant Justice of the Peace district for lower-court matters.
The 34th JDC local rules appendix references WarrantNow for judicial electronic signatures, which supports that electronic warrant workflow may exist inside the court system. It does not create a public warrant database. The DA site and DA app advertise docket, court calendar, court contact, and magistrate or bond-setting features. Those may help people track court dates, but they are not a public active-warrant search.
Important: A warrant can lead to arrest. Call the issuing court, sheriff, or counsel before appearing at an office if safety or custody is a concern.
St. Bernard Parish Marriage Records
Marriage licenses are handled by the St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court. The local Clerk page states a $32 license fee, cash, check, or money order only, and issuance Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Divorce files are district-court records held by the Clerk, not parish-government records. The 34th JDC orders and forms page links to Louisiana guided forms, including a 103 divorce without children.
Probate records are succession records in Louisiana. They are handled through the district-court and Clerk system rather than a separate probate court. Search may involve the Clerk civil subscription, eClerks or LCRAA statewide locator tools, in-person Clerk help, or older paper files. A judgment of possession may also connect the succession file to land records.
- Succession
- Louisiana probate proceeding for a deceased person's estate.
- Executor
- Person named to carry out estate duties under a will.
- Judgment of possession
- Court judgment placing heirs or legatees in possession of estate property.
St. Bernard Parish Traffic Records
The official local citation payment path found for St. Bernard Parish is the Sheriff's Office link to the nCourt St. Bernard Sheriff's Office citation payment portal. It asks for citation number, court date, amount, name, address, phone, and birthdate. The portal warns that State Trooper tickets should not be paid there, and that accidents, DUI, juvenile offenses, suspended license, no driver's license, indictable offenses, and several other matters require court appearance.
A court traffic record is not the same as a Louisiana OMV driver record. The court or sheriff citation system tracks the ticket, court date, violation, payment status, mandatory appearance, fine, costs, and court action. The state driver record tracks license status, convictions reported to the state, suspensions, CDL consequences, and driver-history data. Fixing an error may require the court source first, then the state driver agency if the court reports a correction.
St. Bernard Parish Public Access
Louisiana public-records law starts with custody. The Clerk holds district-court and related records. The Sheriff's Office holds police reports and jail records in its custody. Parish government holds parish administrative records through its own public-records process. The St. Bernard Parish public-records request page tells requesters where parish government records fit and which records it does not maintain.
The parish public-records page is an official source for St. Bernard Parish administrative-record requests.
Use that route for parish-government records, not for Clerk certificates, court files, sheriff police reports, or jail records.
Key statutes:
La. R.S. 44:31 gives adults the right to inspect, copy, or reproduce public records unless an exception applies.
La. R.S. 44:32 covers custodian duties and copy procedures.
La. R.S. 44:3 limits some law-enforcement and investigative records.
Louisiana Children's Code art. 412 makes many juvenile-court records confidential.
St. Bernard Parish Record Fees
Fees depend on the custodian. The Clerk portal lists subscription charges and $1 image or minute charges. The Sheriff's Office fee schedule, effective January 1, 2024, lists separate report and media costs. Parish government's web request form states copy and electronic search charges for parish administrative records. Because these schedules are separate, a requester should avoid sending a sheriff report request to parish government or a certified court-copy request to SBSO.
| Item | Published Amount |
|---|---|
| Clerk civil daily subscription | $20.00 |
| Clerk criminal monthly subscription | $40.00 |
| Clerk land, civil, and criminal annual subscription | $600.00 |
| Clerk civil or criminal image/minute | $1.00 |
| Sheriff accident report | $20 |
| Sheriff incident report | $25 first five pages, then $1 each page |
| Sheriff letter of incarceration | $25 |
| Marriage license | $32.00 |
St. Bernard Parish Court Offices
The parish government complex at 8201 W Judge Perez Drive is not the same as the district court and Clerk address. The St. Bernard Parish Government Complex page identifies the administrative facility and hours.
That distinction matters because court filings go to the court and Clerk, while parish administrative requests go to parish government.
34th Judicial District Court
1101 W. St. Bernard Highway
Chalmette, LA 70043
504-278-4429 court reporter line
St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court
1101 W. St. Bernard Highway
Chalmette, LA 70043
504-271-3434
St. Bernard Parish Federal Records
Federal cases are separate from St. Bernard Parish district-court files. The parish is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Federal civil, criminal, bankruptcy, tax, maritime, immigration, and federal employment cases are searched through federal court systems such as PACER, not the St. Bernard Clerk portal. Bankruptcy records for the parish route to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
State appeals from the 34th JDC go through Louisiana's appellate structure, with St. Bernard Parish associated with the Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit. Federal appeals go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. A state court case does not become federal just because a party lives in another state; jurisdiction depends on the law and case type.
St. Bernard Parish Court History
St. Bernard Parish has a strong courthouse history. The historic courthouse at 1201 Bayou Road was designed by Toledano and Wogan in 1914 and completed in 1915. The parish history page explains its poured-concrete construction, cast-iron staircase, marble features, courtroom ornament, and Palladian design influence. A 1938 special election moved the courthouse from St. Bernard Village to Chalmette by a vote of 1,360 to five.
The Historic St. Bernard Courthouse page documents the old courthouse and its later school, Katrina, Camp Hope, and restoration history.
The history is not just background. It explains why users may see older courthouse references that do not match today's filing location.
St. Bernard Parish Local Access
Local access is shaped by Chalmette, Arabi, Meraux, Violet, Poydras, and lower-parish communities. Major courthouse routes include West Judge Perez Drive, Paris Road, St. Bernard Highway, and St. Claude Avenue or LA 46. St. Bernard Urban Rapid Transit, SBURT, provides weekday public transportation between Arabi and Poydras and can support trips into central Chalmette depending on route and schedule.
The official SBURT transit page gives fares, route deviation details, and customer service information.
Transit details are practical for court users because morning dockets, jury days, and motion settings can require extra arrival time.
The Louisiana.gov St. Bernard Parish profile identifies Chalmette as the parish seat and gives local community context.
That statewide profile helps distinguish parish-level information from court-specific record custody.
St. Bernard Parish Court FAQ
Can St. Bernard Parish court records be searched free?
Some official court and office information is free to view, but the Clerk public-records portal requires account access and paid subscriptions for indexed civil, criminal, and land records. A person can still call or visit the Clerk for records that are not found online.
Who keeps divorce records in St. Bernard Parish?
Divorce records are Clerk of Court records tied to the district-court system. The parish public-records page says parish government does not maintain divorce certificates, so users should contact the Clerk instead.
Is there a public active-warrant search?
No confirmed official public active-warrant search page was located. Use the Sheriff's Office, the Clerk or court division for a known case, or the correct JP district for lower-court matters.
Are juvenile records public?
Louisiana Children's Code art. 412 makes many juvenile-court records confidential, with traffic violations and statutory exceptions treated differently. Do not expect ordinary online public access.
Where are federal cases searched?
Federal records are searched through federal court systems such as PACER. St. Bernard Parish is in the Eastern District of Louisiana for federal trial-court matters.