Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court - Expungements

NOTICE

The Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court Office only has knowledge of charges that have been filed with our office.

If you have charges that are not filed with our office that you want to have expunged; you are responsible for gathering that information and including it on your Expungement Application.

You can obtain information about charges or possible charges from the arresting agency(ies). When you contact them ask for all dates in which you were booked or arrested and fingerprinted. Also ask for all charges associated with those dates.

You can only file for an Expungement of charges in the parish in which the charges originated. You are responsible for knowing all arrest and charge information required to complete your Expungement.

The Office of the Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court will provide an individual with a blank form of a Motion for Expungement to be completed. There are two type of Expungements that may be filed are:

1) Motion for Expungement - This form will be used for any arrest charge or a charge that has been rejected, dismissed, nolle processed or worthless checks.

2) Motion of Judgment of Acquittal and For Expungement - This form is to be used if you were given a sentence for your charge. Your sentencing minutes must reflect that you were sentence either under Article 893 or 894. If you were not sentenced under one of these Articles you will need to consult an Attorney of Law for assistance.

You will need to have the Office of the Calcasieu District Attorney review and sign your Motion. If approved you will then present your Motion to a 14th Judicial Judge for review and signature.

The Office of the Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court will then file and process your Motion and Order once you have all of the required fees and documentation. The length of time to be allowed for all agencies to complete the process of Expungement is approximately 4 weeks to 6 months.

Information Sheet

· The Clerk of Court will only have records of those individuals that were processed through the 14th Judicial Court System. If you went to court at Lake Charles City Court or Sulphur City Court, you will need to contact their office for Expungement information. There may be some cases where you may not be in our records but will need to file an Expungement with us. Please contact our office for further information.

· If you Pled Guilty and you were sentenced under Article 893 or Article 894 you will need to apply for a Motion for Judgment of Acquittal and for Expungement. You will need to check your court minutes in order to find this information. If you plead guilty and were not sentenced under Code of Criminal Procedure 893 or 894 you are not eligible for an Expungement of your record, you will need to contact an Attorney of Law for further assistance.

· If your charges were dismissed, rejected, NPO'd or an arrest or charge only you will need to complete the form Motion for Expungement. You will need to follow the same instructions to process this form.

· You must have completed all Probation and/or Community Service sentences before you can apply for an Expungement. If you were sentenced to any probation time or community service you will need to provide our office with a letter or certificate showing proof of completion. If you were sentenced to supervised probation you will need to contact the Office of Probation and Parole (you may check your file to see if a letter was filed with our office). If you were sentenced to Community Service, Supervised Probation or Unsupervised Probation, required to complete any Training Courses, etc., you will need to contact the Safety Council. (Attach this information to your Motion for Expungement). IF YOU DID NOT CONTACT THE SAFETY COUNCIL FOR YOUR SUPERVISED AND/OR UNSUPERVISED PROBATION, YOU CANNOT FILE FOR AN EXPUNGEMENT UNTIL YOU PROVIDE OUR OFFICE WITH A LETTER OR CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION. (Safety Council of Southwest Louisiana 436-3354

· You must know the arresting agency and the arrest date or charge date. All agencies will go by the arrest or charge date. (Check your record for Bill of Information for date of offense or contact the agency that arrested you.)

· If you were assigned a Court docket number, we will need this information.

· If you are unsure of this information, you will need to go to the Criminal Records Department of the Clerk of Court. You will need to obtain a Criminal Background Check. On any case that you wish to file for an Expungement you will need to get a copy of the Bill of Information and a copy of your sentencing minutes. There will be a fee charged for the Criminal Background Check as well as any copies obtained. If your charge is before the year 1984 you will need to do a manual search in the index books of the Criminal Records Department.

· Our office will notify the following agencies: FBI, Louisiana State Police, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Office, Lake Charles Police Department and Calcasieu Parish District Attorney Office. If another agency was involved you will need to provided us with its name and address. The Department of Motor Vehicles will be notified when a charge applies to them. (See DWI information on next page)

· Filing Fee: The filing fee is $95.00 **PER ARREST DATE** made payable to the Clerk of Court. Using money orders only: $50 payable to DA office and $50 payable to CPSO office. If you require a certified copy an additional $10.00 fee will be charged. You may pay with cash, check, money order or cashiers check. (This fee is per Motion for Expungement form filed.) If your charge in not approved for Expungement, you will receive a refund from the Office of the Clerk of Court and all other fees will be returned to you.

· The Office of State Police, Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information requires $250.00 for processing fee for each charge date. Make money order or cashiers check payable to LSP the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information. They will only accept a money order or cashiers check. (Must have check at time of filing).

· Our office cannot complete these forms for you, if you feel you can not do this on your own, you will need to contact an Attorney of Law for assistance.

Online Forms & Documents