Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 986 – Forms for the expungement of records
Terms Used In Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 986
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Expunge a record: means to remove a record of arrest or conviction, photographs, fingerprints, disposition, or any other information of any kind from public access pursuant to the provisions of this Title. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 972
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Records: includes any incident reports, photographs, fingerprints, disposition, or any other such information of any kind in relation to a single arrest event in the possession of the clerk of court, any criminal justice agency, and local and state law enforcement agencies but shall not include DNA records. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 972
A. Only the forms provided for in Articles 987, 988, 989, 990, 991, 992, 993, 994, 995, and 998 shall be used for filing motions to expunge a record of an arrest which did not result in a conviction, for the expungement of a record of arrest and conviction of a misdemeanor or felony offense, or for an interim motion to expunge a felony offense which resulted in a misdemeanor conviction.
B. Supplemental forms may be added to any petition as long as they adhere to the form provided for in Article 993 of this Code.
C. The clerk of court for any court in the state of Louisiana having criminal jurisdiction may amend any of the forms provided for in Articles 987, 988, 989, 990, 991, 992, 993, 994, 995, and 998 to provide the appropriate name of the court ordering an expungement of records.
Acts 2014, No. 145, §1; Acts 2015, No. 200, §1; Acts 2023, No. 342, §1.