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 a city attorney defend a district-court criminal case or an assistant DA defend a case in another district?
The 2001 opinion said a city attorney could defend a criminal case in district court, while an assistant district attorney could not defend a criminal prosecution anywhere in Louisiana. It declined…
Were Louisiana work-release prisoners covered by workers' compensation through private employers?
The 2001 opinion said work-release inmates were employees of their private employers and had workers' compensation rights under La. R.S. 23:1201.4, subject to the statute's restrictions during…
Could Bossier Parish give money or property to local nonprofits through a cooperative agreement?
The AG said a cooperative agreement alone did not remove the constitutional bar on gratuitous transfers. The police jury needed a legal obligation to spend or transfer the asset, a public purpose,…
Did a Louisiana district court clerk have to close for Martin Luther King Jr. Day?
The AG said a district court clerk had to close when the governor proclaimed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a legal holiday. He distinguished a parish or city court clerk, who could close for…
Did an elected Louisiana police chief need POST certification to patrol with a firearm?
The AG said the then-current statutory definition of peace officer excluded an elected police chief, so the chief did not need POST certification or police academy fitness standards to patrol and…
Could a Louisiana law enforcement district sell surplus land privately for less than its appraisal?
The AG concluded that the district could sell surplus real estate and found no known ban on a private sale, but recommended public notice. He did not approve the below-appraisal offer; he called for…
Did Louisiana public housing authorities follow the state Procurement Code or the Public Bid Law?
The 2001 opinion said public housing authorities were political subdivisions, not executive or judicial state agencies. They were subject to the Public Bid Law rather than the Louisiana Procurement Code.
Could a Louisiana parish that rejected video poker hold another vote to allow it?
The 2001 opinion said the legislature could enact a law authorizing a new parish or municipal referendum on video poker after a parish's 1996 rejection. A legislative act was needed to authorize…
Could a Louisiana legislative staffer contract with Southern University on intellectual-property policy?
The 2001 opinion said a professional-service contract did not constitute employment under the dual-officeholding law. It also flagged the separate public-contract-fraud statute concerning an…
Could Louisiana distribute Education Excellence Fund awards before receiving revenue or approving district plans?
The 2001 opinion said a state agency could not distribute EEF money based on budget authority alone before revenue arrived. Plans could be approved earlier, and districts could start projects with…
Could Lake Charles change firefighter overtime and add supplemental pay without triggering another union's equal-raise clause?
The 2001 opinion said municipalities could make binding collective-bargaining agreements within constitutional and civil-service limits. It characterized this proposed overtime and supplemental-pay…
How did Louisiana have to divide early tobacco-settlement payments and trust earnings among education, health, and TOPS?
The 2001 opinion said the trust's ordinary deposit was split equally among health, education, and TOPS funds. In fiscal 2000–01 through 2002–03, education also received 10% of total settlement…
Were Louisiana charter schools entitled to Education Excellence Fund money without a specific appropriation?
The 2001 opinion said no direct charter-school appropriation was mandatory. Type 1, 3, and 4 schools could also receive money through local systems, but those systems did not have to allocate it to…
Could Louisiana Education Excellence Fund money support new educational programs approved after the fund law passed?
The 2001 opinion said yes. Its reference to 'other educational programs approved by the legislature' included both previously approved programs and future programs approved under the legislation,…
Could a tenant serve on a Louisiana fire district board that required resident property taxpayers?
The AG concluded that a tenant who owned no property in the district did not meet the board qualification in the statute then in force. The parish governing authority had to declare a vacancy, but…
Could a Louisiana assistant district attorney also teach at a state-funded college?
The 2001 opinion said yes under the educator exception to the dual officeholding law, if the college role involved professional educational work. It assumed the attorney's prosecutorial duties and…
Could Louisiana credit transportation-trust operating costs against borrowing from the TIMED account?
The 2001 opinion found no prohibition against crediting Transportation Trust Fund operating costs spent on TIMED projects against the amount owed to the TIMED account.
What certificates did a Louisiana town need to annex land by petition?
The 2001 opinion said Mansura's petition-based annexation needed certifications from the parish assessor and registrar of voters for the property-value and voter-assent requirements. The materials…
Could a Louisiana fire district let an employee or volunteer live in its firehouse in exchange for work?
The 2001 opinion said a fire district could exchange living quarters for needed administrative services if it found the services' value comparable to the quarters' rental value. If the quarters were…
Was a levee-district superintendent owed compensatory time for overtime work?
The 2001 opinion did not decide the superintendent's entitlement because it required facts the office would not determine. It explained federal overtime exemptions and said an employer's established…
How long did a Louisiana indigent defender board have to keep case files, financial records and minutes?
The 2001 opinion said public records followed the state archivist's retention schedule or, absent a schedule, at least three years. It suggested checking the schedule for each record type and…
Were Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District employees covered by Louisiana state civil service?
The 2001 opinion said the district should participate in state civil service. It treated levee districts as state agencies for this purpose under a Louisiana Supreme Court decision and recalled an…
Could parish prisoners volunteer to work on private church property or cemeteries?
The 2001 opinion said voluntary parish-inmate labor could be used in public places and cemeteries or graveyards, public or private, but not on the private church property described. It also…
Who paid appointed lawyers for indigent parents and children in Louisiana child-protection cases?
The 2001 opinion said the Department of Social Services could pay authorized fees for children's counsel or indigent parents' counsel, but not both. If charging DSS was improper, a court could…
Could Carencro reimburse its police chief for using a personal car and insure him for duty-related liability?
The 2001 opinion allowed documented mileage reimbursement or a lump-sum car allowance treated as taxable compensation. It also said the city could buy insurance covering the chief's personal…
Could a private property owner avoid Village of Converse sewer charges under an old mayoral agreement?
The 2001 opinion said a fee waiver with no value exchanged would be an invalid donation of public funds, while value from the landowner could change that result. It could not resolve the disputed…
Could Louisiana's Indigent Defense Assistance Board conduct an official meeting by telephone?
No. The 2000 opinion said the board's official meetings had to comply with the open meetings law and could not take place by telephone conference call.
Could a Louisiana town forgive a fire district's debt for a fire truck so the district could fund services?
The 2000 opinion said Oak Grove could forgive the remaining fire-truck debt so the district could use those funds for fire protection benefiting the town. It treated that arrangement as a…
Could homeowners claim Louisiana's homestead exemption after transferring title to their corporation?
The 2000 opinion said no. Although the occupants continued to live in the house, their business owned it, so the same person or family did not both own and occupy the property as the constitutional…
Were pollution-control devices exempt from Jackson Parish sales tax because they were exempt from state sales tax?
The 2000 opinion said no. The statute excluded qualifying devices from state sales tax as sales at retail, but expressly included them in local sales taxes, and the office found no parish exemption.
Did Terrebonne Parish still need an initiative election after voters approved a smaller school board?
The 2000 opinion said the initiative process was moot after voters approved the board's own membership-reduction ordinance. It did not resolve the proposed petition-withdrawal mechanics or compare…
Could DeSoto Parish employees work while receiving vacation pay and regular pay for the same period?
The 2000 opinion said no. Paying both vacation and regular wages for the same period would give employees unearned compensation and amount to a prohibited donation of public funds.
Could a Louisiana town discard obsolete computers that failed to sell as surplus property?
The 2000 opinion said a municipality first had to follow an authorized sale procedure for surplus movables. If the equipment did not sell even at minimal pricing, the town could discard it.
Did Lafourche Parish Council's minutes authorize the clerk's pay and benefits when its resolution omitted them?
The 2000 opinion said yes: the council's general hiring resolution could be read with the more specific meeting minutes, which set the clerk's salary and benefits. It also required transportation…
Did a business on St. Bernard Port District property need parish zoning clearance for an occupational license?
The 2000 opinion said no for the described business on port-owned property operating partly for the port's benefit. It treated the state-created port district's authority as prevailing over…
Could the Avoyelles Parish School Board allocate general-fund money to schools in blocks?
The 2000 opinion said the board could use block allocations after adopting and submitting a budget under the school and local budget laws. Disbursements still had to follow the approved budget.
Could a full-time Louisiana assistant district attorney also serve as a city prosecutor?
The 2000 opinion said a full-time assistant district attorney could also be a part-time city prosecutor, but could not hold the two posts if both were full time.
Could Sulphur's five-member city council pass an ordinance by a 2–1 vote with only three members present?
No. The 2000 opinion said the charter required an affirmative vote from a majority of all five authorized council seats, so three yes votes were needed even when three members formed a quorum.
Could Zachary's interim school board call a later special election after missing its 2000 election date?
The 2000 opinion said yes. After the specified 2000 election date became impossible, the interim board could call an initial school-board election under the Louisiana Election Code's…
Could a Louisiana school board use its own employees to build a school building below the public-bid threshold?
The 2000 opinion said no. The law allowed some below-threshold public works to be performed by public employees but expressly excluded building construction; a private contractor was required even…
Who had to transport a patient under a Louisiana physician's emergency mental-health certificate?
The 2000 opinion said the sheriff's office had a transport duty, but the statute assigned it to peace officers generally, not the sheriff alone. Transport had to begin within the certificate's…
Could Louisiana businesses or debt collectors contract for extra fees when collecting bad checks?
The 2000 opinion said no. It allowed the Office of Financial Institutions to apply the bad-check statute to debt collector contracts, but said payees and their collection agents could not contract…
Could a Louisiana parish police jury ban outdoor burning of trash?
The 2000 opinion said the Richland Parish Police Jury could prohibit or regulate trash burning by ordinance under R.S. 33:1236. Its ordinance could set restrictions and penalties, but could not…
Could a Louisiana judge suspend indigent defender court costs and order probation payments to the criminal court fund?
The AG said the court had discretion to suspend costs under R.S. 15:146 and could order a probation payment to the criminal court fund under C.Cr.P. Art. 895.1(B).
Could Madison Parish waive utility fees and use tax-adjudicated property sales to pay a judgment?
The 2000 opinion generally rejected free water, sewer, or garbage service, but recognized a formally adopted need-based welfare program and limited credits described in an earlier opinion. It said…
Could Lake Providence require board approval for police hires and refuse bills outside its approved budget?
The 2000 opinion said police hiring followed the chief's recommendation and mayor-and-board approval, and the mayor could refuse to pay bills or salaries without a governing-body appropriation.
Could Lake Providence contract with a parish garbage district to collect waste inside town?
The 2000 opinion said yes. Although a parish garbage district's territory excluded municipalities, the town and district could agree on a joint solid-waste undertaking under the…
Could the Louisiana Credit Union League organize as an LLC even though LLCs could not be formed for banking?
The 2000 opinion said yes, provided the league was not formed to conduct banking. The requester described it as a credit-union service organization that took no deposits and made no loans.
Did a psychologist's Louisiana LLC need its own malpractice surcharge to join the patient compensation fund?
The 2000 opinion said the LLC could qualify without another surcharge if its psychologist owner was qualified and provided health care on its behalf. The LLC also had to meet the Act's eligibility…
When did property-tax interest and penalties begin if Louisiana's 2000 tax rolls were filed late?
The 2000 opinion said interest and penalties should begin 45 days after a late tax-roll filing, rather than on December 31. For rolls filed on time by November 15, it retained the December 31…
Was St. Martinville's sewer-project bid addendum valid when it added an early-completion incentive?
The 2000 opinion said the addendum was timely under the then-applicable 72-hour rule, which excluded weekends and legal holidays. The city could award the contract with the incentive to the lowest…
Who had to house and pay for North Hodge prisoners charged under state law or local ordinances?
The 2000 opinion said the sheriff had to accept people charged with state crimes and the parish paid their jail costs. For local-ordinance charges, it placed the incarceration responsibility on the…
Could Caddo Parish schools receive education fund earnings directly and use them for copiers or security equipment?
The 2000 opinion said the school board, not individual schools, had to spend the fund earnings. It said copiers, projector bulbs, and security equipment could qualify if a supported request showed a…
Did Louisiana's public-funds rule bar a proposed Medicaid transfer plan with parish nursing homes?
The 2000 opinion said the described state-and-nursing-home transfer plan did not violate Louisiana's public donation restriction. It expressly did not assess whether the plan complied with federal law.
Could Louisiana lawmakers use Interim Emergency Board mail-ballot rules to approve casino support contracts?
The 2000 opinion said the legislature could use the mail-ballot procedures in La. R.S. 39:461.1 for casino support-service contracts because La. R.S. 27:247 allowed mail voting but gave no…
When could Louisiana's dental board release the result of a disciplinary decision during an appeal?
The 2000 opinion said the board committee's decision became final when it reached a final decision after hearing the evidence. The board could then release the result during the judicial-review…
Did creating an assessment district end the Plaquemines school board's share of assessor equipment costs?
No. The 2000 opinion said the district funding replaced salary-and-expense deductions from tax receipts, while the police jury still had to buy assessor equipment under R.S. 33:4713 and bill tax…
Could Rosepine forbid off-duty officers from taking town police cars home outside the town limits?
The 2000 opinion said Rosepine could restrict personal use by ordinance, including ordinary commuting. The ordinance could not prevent an elected chief from assigning vehicles for official law…
Could St. James Parish waive rental fees at one recreation district's park while charging at others?
The 2000 opinion said yes. The council could waive District 5's park fees without waiving fees elsewhere, but it should amend the existing ordinance that imposed fees and deposits across the districts.
Did Lafourche Parish's president have to enforce council resolutions giving its clerk a vehicle and benefits?
The 2000 opinion said council resolutions lacked the force of law under Lafourche's charter, so the parish president had no duty to enforce them. The council could appoint its clerk by resolution,…
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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.