Louisiana Public Records Law: Deadlines, Fees, and How to File a Request

Louisiana's Public Records Law, La. R.S. 44:1 et seq., gives any person of the age of majority the right to inspect, copy or reproduce the records of state and local government bodies, with enforcement running directly to district court under R.S. 44:35.

This page covers Louisiana state law. Records held by federal agencies run under the federal Freedom of Information Act instead, and the process is different enough that it needs its own walkthrough: see how to file a FOIA request. For the deadline, fee and appeal rules in every other state, start at our public records laws by state hub.

Who can request records in Louisiana

R.S. 44:31 grants the right of access to "any person of the age of majority." That phrasing does two things worth noting. It sets no general residency or citizenship condition, so a requester in another state or another country ordinarily stands on the same footing as a Baton Rouge resident. It also imposes an age floor, which most state records statutes do not. In Louisiana the age of majority is 18.

Two exceptions were added in 2024 and both sit in R.S. 44:31.1. Under R.S. 44:31.1(B)(1), enacted by Acts 2024 No. 638, a request for records of the Office of the Governor may be made only by a resident of Louisiana, so the no-residency rule does not hold for that one office. Under R.S. 44:31.1(A)(1), the right of access does not extend to an individual in custody after a felony sentence who has exhausted his appellate remedies, unless the request is related to a claim for post-conviction relief. Check which body holds the record before assuming out-of-state standing.

The custodian's permitted questions are tightly limited. Under R.S. 44:32(A)(1) the custodian "shall make no inquiry of any person who applies for a public record, except an inquiry as to the age and identification of the person," and may require the requester to sign a register. The custodian may also ask you to be more specific about which records you want if the initial request does not make that clear. Nothing in the statute lets a custodian condition access on your reason for asking.

One practical limit sits in R.S. 44:32(A)(2): if a custodian reasonably determines that a request would substantially disrupt required government operations, the custodian may deny access, but only after reasonable attempts to narrow or specify the request with the requester. A denial on that ground without any attempt to negotiate scope does not satisfy the statute.

Deadlines: three different clocks

Louisiana does not use a single response window. Three provisions operate together, and requesters who only know one of them tend to misjudge where they stand.

Immediate production for records not in active use. R.S. 44:33(B)(1) is direct: if the record "is not being in active use at the time of the application," it "shall be immediately presented to the authorized person applying for it."

Three days when the record is in active use. If the record is in active use, the custodian "shall promptly certify this in writing to the applicant, and in his certificate shall fix a day and hour within three days, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays, for the exercise of the right granted by this Chapter."

Five days when the custodian questions whether the item is public. R.S. 44:32(D) applies "in any case in which a record is requested and a question is raised by the custodian of the record as to whether it is a public record." Then the custodian must notify the requester in writing within five days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, of the determination and the reasons for it, including "a reference to the basis under law" for the exemption claimed.

Those five days also mark the point where silence becomes actionable. R.S. 44:35(A) lets a requester sue after "the passage of five days" from the request without receiving either a written determination or an estimate of the time reasonably necessary for collection, segregation, redaction, examination or review. In other words, a custodian who does nothing at all is in the same position as a custodian who denies.

Fees and the indigency waiver

Inspection is free, and the statute says so twice over. R.S. 44:32(C)(3) provides that "no fee shall be charged to any person to examine or review any public records," and it adds that no fee may be charged for the examination or review a custodian performs to determine whether a record is subject to disclosure. That second clause forecloses a common tactic elsewhere: billing the requester for the agency's own review time before anything is handed over.

Copies are a separate matter, and the rules split by who holds the record. For a state agency, R.S. 44:32(C)(2)(a) ties copying charges to the uniform fee schedule adopted by the commissioner of administration under R.S. 39:241, so the rate is set centrally rather than office by office. Local custodians, meaning parish and municipal bodies, school boards and clerks of court, set their own reasonable fees, and any custodian who charges "shall establish a reasonable fee schedule and post the schedule where it can be readily accessed by the public." The custodian may require payment in advance and may decline to produce copies if you failed to pay for an earlier request. Because local rates differ, ask for the posted schedule before committing to a large order.

Three relief provisions sit in the same section, and requesters routinely miss the second and third. R.S. 44:32(C)(1)(a) is the indigency branch: copies "may be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge to indigent citizens of this state." The word "may" matters, and the statute sets no application form or income test, so ask the custodian in writing what showing that office accepts. R.S. 44:32(C)(2)(a) is broader in one respect: a state-agency custodian may furnish copies without charge or at a reduced charge where the custodian determines the use of the records "will be limited to a public purpose," which reaches journalists, researchers and civic groups who are not claiming indigency. R.S. 44:32(C)(2)(b) goes further still and requires that copies be furnished free to a student-produced news or information medium at a public postsecondary institution.

How to file a Louisiana public records request

Louisiana has no central records portal. Every request goes to the custodian who actually holds the record, which is the agency, parish office, municipal department, school board or clerk of court in question.

1. Identify the right custodian. State agency records go to that agency's public records officer. Parish and municipal records go to the parish or city clerk or the department that generated them. Court filings go to the clerk of court for that judicial district.
2. Put the request in writing. R.S. 44:32(D) and R.S. 44:35 both key off written requests, and a written record of the date is what starts the clock you may later need to prove.
3. Describe the records with enough detail that the custodian can locate them: subject, date range, department, and any case, permit or incident number you have.
4. For body camera footage, be incident specific. R.S. 44:3 requires reasonable specificity as to date, time, location or persons involved, and a custodian may deny a request that lacks it.
5. Ask for the posted fee schedule and for an estimate before authorizing copies.
6. Keep your copy of the request and the date it was delivered. If five days pass with no written determination and no time estimate, that silence is itself grounds for suit.

Our free FOIA request generator will assemble a Louisiana-specific letter with the right statutory citations, and nothing you type into it is stored or transmitted.

Denials and how to appeal

Louisiana provides no administrative appeal board and no attorney general review with binding force. Enforcement is judicial, and it is designed to move quickly.

Under R.S. 44:35(A), a person denied access, either by the custodian's determination or by the passage of five days without a written determination or time estimate, may bring proceedings for a writ of mandamus or for injunctive or declaratory relief in the district court for the parish where the custodian's office is located.

Several features of that suit favor requesters. The court "shall determine the matter de novo and the burden is on the custodian to sustain his action." Cases under the chapter "shall be tried by preference and in a summary manner," which moves them ahead of the ordinary civil docket. A requester who prevails may be awarded reasonable attorney fees and other costs of litigation, and one who prevails in part may be awarded fees at the court's discretion.

R.S. 44:35(E)(1) supplies the sanction, and it splits into two remedies that attach to different conduct. Read carefully, because the split is easy to blur.

• Actual damages are available on either trigger: the court may award them if it finds the custodian arbitrarily or capriciously withheld the requested record, or unreasonably or arbitrarily failed to respond to the request as required by R.S. 44:32.
• Civil penalties of up to $100 per day, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays, attach only to the second trigger. The penalty runs where the custodian failed to respond, and it is measured per day of the failure to give notification. A withholding that was arbitrary but was answered on time draws actual damages, not the daily penalty.

R.S. 44:35(E)(2) then makes clear that no individual is personally liable for those penalties; the public body pays.

R.S. 44:35(F) caps the fee award. Attorney fees awarded under the section are limited to the hourly rates approved by the attorney general for outside counsel, so a prevailing requester should not assume full market-rate recovery.

The statute as reviewed for this page sets no fixed deadline for filing that suit. Ordinary Louisiana prescription rules would govern by default, and that is a question to raise with a Louisiana attorney rather than assume.

Police records and body camera footage

Body-worn camera video sits under R.S. 44:3(A)(8), which exempts "video or audio recordings generated by law enforcement officer body-worn cameras that are found by the custodian to violate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy."

Three details follow from that section:

• Footage the custodian places in that category is not permanently sealed. R.S. 44:3(A)(8)(b) provides that it "shall be disclosed upon a determination and order from a court of competent jurisdiction pursuant to R.S. 44:35," and R.S. 44:3(A)(8)(c) leaves the costs of a court-ordered production to be set by the court.
• Requests must be narrow. Body camera requests "shall be incident specific and shall include reasonable specificity as to the date, time, location, or persons involved," and a request covering multiple incidents must carry that specificity for each. A custodian may deny a request that does not.
• Off-duty recordings are treated differently. Under R.S. 44:3(A)(8)(d), footage generated while the officer was not acting within the scope of official duties is not subject to disclosure where release would violate a reasonable expectation of privacy.

R.S. 44:3 also protects the identity of confidential sources and shields records of pending criminal litigation and other investigative material, so an open investigation is the most common reason a police records request in Louisiana stalls.

What the Public Records Law does not cover

Birth, death and marriage certificates are not public records requests. They run through the Louisiana Department of Health's vital records office under a separate eligibility framework tied to your relationship to the person named. Our Louisiana death records guide covers who may order a certified copy and what proof is required.

Federal agency records are not covered either. A request to the FBI, the Social Security Administration or any other federal body runs under 5 U.S.C. 552, with its own 20-working-day clock, its own fee categories and its own administrative appeal. Our guide to filing a federal FOIA request walks through that process.

Information on this page reflects Louisiana law as of August 2026 and is general legal information, not legal advice. Fee schedules, agency contacts and custodian practices change. For advice about a specific denial or a records dispute, consult an attorney licensed in Louisiana.