Louisiana Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Louisiana, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Could Church Point limit police take-home vehicles or force sale of its drug dog?
The AG said Church Point's mayor and aldermen could restrict police vehicles outside town limits for nonofficial use, but had to recognize on-call travel as official use. The board could not…
Does a private Louisiana school escape proprietary-school regulation if it is paid under a state contract?
No, under the facts posed. The AG said payments from a state agency for services under a contract were an indirect benefit, not the direct and significant public support required for the…
Can a Louisiana town forgive payments in lieu of taxes owed by its housing authority?
Yes. The AG said Elton could agree to waive sums owed by its housing authority as payments in lieu of taxes. The statute exempted housing authorities from ordinary local taxes and let a municipality…
Could a Louisiana law-enforcement planning district buy a surplus police vehicle without a public auction?
Yes. The AG treated the Capital District planning agency as a political subdivision and concluded it could buy a surplus Baton Rouge police vehicle through an intergovernmental agreement without the…
Who paid for a juvenile's detention before adjudication under Louisiana Children's Code article 815(E)?
The AG concluded that the parish or municipality requesting a juvenile's placement in a regional detention center or shelter care facility was responsible to that facility for the confinement costs…
Does losing the signed superintendent contract end a Louisiana school superintendent's employment?
No. The AG said the loss of Iberville Parish's executed superintendent contract did not end the superintendent's employment. A lost written agreement could be proved through the methods described by…
Could a co-owner walk across a drainage district's right of way to reach the rest of the family's land?
Yes, on the described facts. The AG said a co-owner could walk across the drainage district's right of use to reach other family land because ordinary walking did not pose an unreasonable danger to…
Could a Louisiana parish tax commission use surplus collections to settle a mistaken sales-tax distribution?
The AG concluded that the Evangeline Parish tax commission could pay a misallocation settlement from its general fund. Its existing articles required surplus commissions to be distributed to taxing…
Could Louisiana's funeral licensing board send disciplinary decisions to a national regulator database?
The AG concluded that the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors could share disciplinary information with a national database for member regulators, but only after its action became final and…
Could a Louisiana gravity drainage board call its own acreage-tax bond election?
Yes. The AG concluded that a gravity drainage district's board of commissioners, as its governing authority, could call the special election authorized by R.S. 38:1771 without asking the parish…
Could an Orleans Parish civil sheriff put a deputy on paid leave or assign lesser duties while a federal indictment was pending?
The AG said an indictment was not a conviction and that the deputy should not be suspended or placed on leave before a final conviction. It separately noted the sheriff's broad authority to dismiss…
Could a Zachary school board member also serve on the city's planning commission?
Yes. The AG concluded that Louisiana's dual officeholding laws did not bar the two positions and that Zachary's home rule charter made the separate statutory bar for municipal planning commissioners…
Could a Louisiana parish notary examining committee pay its members a stipend or reimburse expenses?
The AG said a parish notarial examining committee could not pay its members a stipend or per diem because no law authorized it. Reasonable out-of-pocket expenses could be reimbursed as an…
Could the Caddo Levee District raise its campsite lease rates without a state fee-approval vote?
Yes. The AG concluded that the Caddo Levee District could raise its campsite lease rates because it was a political subdivision, not a state agency subject to the fee-increase provisions the…
Can a part-time Louisiana assistant district attorney also be an elected parish school board member?
Yes. The AG said an assistant district attorney working part time, under the statute's 35-hour weekly full-time threshold, could also serve as an elected parish school board member. It assumed the…
Can a Louisiana justice require a constable at every hearing and reduce the constable's share of civil fees?
The AG said a justice of the peace could require a constable to attend court proceedings under the court's inherent authority. For civil matters, the justice and constable offices each received half…
Must a Louisiana fire district publicly advertise an open job before hiring someone?
The AG found no general state-law requirement that a public entity advertise a vacancy before hiring. It noted that a local policy, contract, or federal desegregation decree could require…
Do Louisiana fire district board members earn a per diem when too few members attend to hold a meeting?
No. The AG said a board gathering that fails for lack of a quorum is not a valid meeting, so attending members receive no meeting compensation. A continued meeting may be paid if a quorum attends…
Can Clinton change a posted council agenda and who appoints its police chief and town clerk?
The AG said a posted agenda could be changed by a two-thirds vote of members present. Clinton's mayor could appoint the police chief and town clerk, but the board of aldermen had to approve the…
Could a Louisiana drainage district collect a renewed tax in an annexed precinct left off the polling-place list?
Yes, on the facts described. The AG said the registrar's omission of one newly annexed precinct did not invalidate the drainage district's tax-renewal election because the vote passed by a wide…
Did an elected employee member of Zachary's civil service board have to keep living and voting in the city?
Yes. The AG said the city residency and voter-registration qualifications applied throughout service on Zachary's Municipal Employees Civil Service Board, including to members elected by classified…
Could a Lockport zoning commissioner also work full time as a parish permits coordinator?
Yes. The AG concluded that Lockport's part-time zoning commissioner could also work full time as a parish permits coordinator. The parish job was employment, not another public office barred by the…
Could a Louisiana police jury stop a parish library board's planned bookmobile purchase?
Yes. The AG said Natchitoches Parish Police Jury could override the library board's vote to proceed with bookmobile bids because the police jury held fiscal control over the parish agency and the…
Did a Louisiana police chief have to resign to run for parish sheriff?
No. The AG said the Zwolle police chief could campaign for Sabine Parish sheriff while remaining chief if campaign activity stayed off duty and did not interfere with his official responsibilities.…
Could a Louisiana parish contribute public funds to a Medal of Honor memorial outside the parish?
Yes. The AG concluded that St. Helena Parish's police jury could contribute to a proposed Louisiana Medal of Honor park and museum, treating a public tribute to the state's military honorees as a…
Can a Louisiana parish use an equipment tax to buy land and a building for its road department?
No. The AG said Franklin Parish's voter-approved tax for maintaining, operating, and buying equipment did not authorize land or building purchases, even for equipment storage and offices. The parish…
Could a Louisiana town ordinance make police obey every lawful request of the mayor and aldermen?
No to that broad command. The AG said a town could assign additional duties to its police chief by ordinance, but Sibley's ordinance could not require police to carry out all lawful requests of the…
Was a Louisiana city marshal's office a Safe Haven location for an infant?
No. The AG concluded that the Lafayette City Marshal's office was not a designated emergency-care facility under the Safe Haven law as it stood in 2005. The office was neither listed separately nor…
Was an appointed New Orleans traffic court clerk required to join the Louisiana clerks' retirement fund despite a conflicting city ordinance?
Yes. The AG said R.S. 11:1511 required the appointed New Orleans Traffic Court clerk to belong to the Clerks' of Court Retirement and Relief Fund throughout her service; a contrary city ordinance…
Could a Webster Parish sales tax auditor also serve on Minden's city council?
Yes. The AG said the Webster Parish Sales and Use Tax Commission and the City of Minden were separate political subdivisions, so the dual officeholding laws did not bar the auditor from serving as a…
Did Carencro have to pay an extra crime-lab bill after remitting required court costs?
The AG said that if Carencro had paid all court costs required for the Acadiana crime lab, it should not be denied further lab service. If approved lab costs exceeded fee revenue, the member…
Could a Louisiana school board ban smoking even in outdoor areas of school property under the statute examined in 2005?
The AG concluded that the school-specific statute contemplated a designated smoking area on school property, so the Rapides Parish board could not use a blanket ban to erase that exception. The…
Could a drainage district buy equipment owned and used mainly by its parish?
No, on the facts presented. The AG said the Duralde Gravity Drainage District could not buy equipment titled to and operated mainly by the Evangeline Parish Police Jury when the district's expected…
Did Amite have to recover health premiums it mistakenly paid for individual policies?
The AG said Amite was not obliged to seek reimbursement of individual health-policy premiums paid for an employee and alderman if all parties acted in good faith. It did not decide their good faith…
Could Baker shift school millage to a city tax and keep the extra revenue?
No. The AG said that even if Baker levied a tax under the cited constitutional school-funding provision, every dollar of its proceeds had to support public elementary and secondary schools. The city…
Can a Louisiana constable collect traffic court costs or witness fees for testifying?
The AG said a constable could not receive a portion of court costs from traffic citations because traffic cases were criminal matters. A constable could receive witness fees when required to appear…
What yard waste or land-clearing material could be burned in Youngsville under Louisiana law?
Under the 2005 state rules the AG examined, a Youngsville landowner could burn attended, noncommercial yard waste limited to leaves, grass, twigs, branches, and vines. A separate land-clearing…
Can a Louisiana mayor cut budgeted retirement contributions for city court judges and employees?
The AG said Monroe's mayor could not unilaterally reduce retirement contributions for sitting city court judges because the constitution protected their retirement benefits during their terms. It…
Must a Louisiana narcotics officer use a marked car, and when do threats against an officer count as public intimidation?
The AG said the cited arrest rule did not require a marked car or uniform for the described narcotics interdictions, absent a contrary provision. Threats against an officer amounted to public…
Can a Louisiana police department buy marked patrol cars with drug forfeiture money?
Yes, in the situation described. The AG said Westlake could use its allocated drug-forfeiture proceeds for marked patrol cars used by officers trained in narcotics work when the cars had a clear…
Could a Louisiana mayor direct a clerk to add or remove items from the town council agenda?
Yes, within limits. The AG said Amite's mayor could review the agenda and direct the clerk to add or remove items if that did not conflict with the clerk's statutory duties or procedures adopted by…
Could an East Carroll prison district board lease its jail or contract out its management?
The AG said Prison District No. 1 was administered by East Carroll alone and its board composition followed the single-parish rule. The board could not enter a proposed prison-facility lease or…
Could a Louisiana city pay a police sergeant a delayed seniority raise retroactively?
It depended on the source of the raise. The AG said Rayne could pay back wages from the date it became obligated to award the increase, but a discretionary raise for work already paid could be an…
Did Louisiana's hog-dog fighting law prohibit hunting hogs with dogs?
The 2005 AG said a hog-and-dog hunt was a violation if injury was possible or reasonably likely, even without intent to injure. It also said the statute excepted lawful hog hunting for harvest; the…
Could a Louisiana private college receive Aid to Independent Colleges payments for a student whose tuition was partly paid by TOPS?
Yes. The AG said TOPS was student tuition aid, not another institutional reimbursement program. An eligible independent college could therefore receive Aid to Independent Colleges payments for…
Who appoints and sets pay for Zachary's assistant city attorneys?
The AG said Zachary's city attorney appointed assistant city attorneys without needing council confirmation of the individual selected. The mayor, consulting the city attorney, prepared the budgeted…
Did a Louisiana tourism bureau's executive contract need State Bond Commission approval?
Yes, for the proposed contract. The AG said its non-appropriation clause still left the bureau liable for a payment on termination, so the contract created debt and required State Bond Commission…
Can a Louisiana justice of the peace also work full time as a deputy clerk of court?
No. The AG concluded that an elected justice of the peace could not simultaneously hold a full-time appointment as deputy clerk of court because Louisiana's dual-officeholding law barred the…
Can an adult adoption act be signed and notarized in different states?
Yes. The AG said R.S. 9:461 did not require every party to execute the adult adoption act in one Louisiana parish. In the facts presented, the parties could have their signatures notarized…
Could a Louisiana water district pay a PR firm to explain a rate increase to customers?
The AG said a water district could spend public funds to give customers factual information about its rates and operations, but could not use those funds to manipulate opinion or promote a candidate…
Could a Catholic school transfer student play high school sports immediately after moving to a school in another diocese?
The AG did not decide whether all Catholic schools, or each diocese, counted as one school organization under the transfer exception. It said eligibility depended on whether the same entity operated…
Could Lafayette's school board bus St. Martin students to private schools for free?
The AG said Lafayette Parish School Board lacked authority to provide free transportation to students who lived outside its jurisdiction for private schools in Lafayette. It did not decide whether…
Can a member inspect an electric cooperative's employment contracts in Louisiana?
The AG said an electric cooperative's records generally were outside Louisiana's Public Records Law unless the cooperative was a public entity. A cooperative member or the member's attorney could…
Could Louisiana's transportation department agree to pay bridge damage claims regardless of which government caused them?
No. The AG concluded that DOTD could not assume liability for damage caused by the railroad commission or another party's negligence. A joint agreement allocating payment without regard to fault…
Who could hire or fire unclassified employees of the Morgan City Housing Authority?
The AG said the housing authority's executive director controlled hiring and termination, along with other personnel decisions, under applicable civil service rules and authority policies. The board…
Could a Winn Parish police juror also work for the parish coroner?
No. The AG said a Winn Parish police juror could not also be employed by the coroner's office. It treated the positions as incompatible under the dual-officeholding statute and said the individual…
Could a Louisiana parish council call an alcohol local-option vote without a voter petition?
No. The AG said Livingston Parish's council could not call a local-option election on alcohol sales on its own initiative. Under R.S. 26:582, a petition signed by at least twenty-five percent of…
Could a Louisiana state hospital refuse a municipal jail inmate or divert the ambulance?
The AG said a state-supported hospital could not deny emergency treatment to anyone, including a municipal jail inmate. For nonemergency care, the statutes did not impose the same treatment duty for…
Can a Louisiana alderman serve on a joint commission and also work as its supervisor?
The AG said the elected alderman could also serve as the town's appointee to the joint commission. He could not accept employment as supervisor of the commission whose board he served on, because…
Who pays for a parish assessor's and tax collector's office equipment and computer services?
The AG said the parish governing body should buy needed tax-office furniture, equipment, supplies, and maps, then bill tax-recipient bodies proportionately. Computer services could not be prorated…
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Attorney general opinions in Louisiana are written by the Louisiana Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.