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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Did a Louisiana visitors bureau need police jury approval before using its annual budget?
The AG said the Monroe-West Monroe Convention and Visitors Bureau did not. It treated that bureau as an independent political subdivision, outside the budget approval rule for parish-created commissions.
Could St. Bernard Parish's reelected president receive a raise approved during his prior term?
The 2000 opinion said yes. The parish council had approved the raise in 1998, and the charter and ordinance barred it only during the term in which it was enacted; the new salary took effect when…
Could a Louisiana parish pay to repair a private road because a school bus used it?
The 2000 opinion said Beauregard Parish could not use public funds to maintain the described privately owned road, where the owners appeared to be the main beneficiaries. It separately noted the…
Could a Louisiana development district let other public bodies remove unwanted hangars without making an unlawful donation?
The 2000 opinion said yes where removal saved the district demolition and disposal costs, giving it a financial benefit. It said the constitutional cooperative-endeavor clause did not separately…
Was off-reservation farmland bought by the Coushatta Tribe exempt from Louisiana property tax?
The 2000 opinion said no on the stated assumption that the land was outside the reservation and had not been taken into federal trust. It left room for special legislation or another circumstance…
Could Kenner provide rent-free space in a municipal building for a justice of the peace court?
The 2000 opinion said Kenner could do so through a cooperative endeavor with the Sixth Justice of the Peace Court. It found a public-purpose basis tied to the court's work in the city and said the…
Could a full-time district court reporter also serve on Baton Rouge's Metropolitan Council?
The 2000 opinion said no. A full-time court reporter held an appointive position and could not simultaneously hold the elected Metropolitan Council seat; she had to resign the reporter appointment…
Could a Louisiana sheriff help pay to improve a police-jury road serving the parish jail?
The 2000 opinion said Franklin Parish's sheriff could enter a cooperative endeavor with the police jury to improve the road to the parish jail. Because the jail was the road's primary user, the…
Did Louisiana's Public Records Act require a criminal court to release staff and budget records to a nonprofit requester?
The AG said the Public Records Act did not apply to the judiciary's adjudicatory or administrative functions as he understood the law in 2000. He thought the requested records appeared…
Could Louisiana reimburse Orleans Parish clerk staff for election work during their regular office hours?
The AG said no under the election expense statute then in force. Taking paid annual leave from the city payroll did not make election work performed during regular clerk office hours reimbursable by…
Did Lafayette's extensions and price change to a waste contract violate its home-rule budget charter?
The 2000 opinion said no. The extension amendments set compensation by a future formula, and sufficient funds had been appropriated when the amount became fixed; the office therefore found no…
Was Metairie Country Club exempt from Louisiana property taxes as a fraternal club?
The 2000 opinion said the club did not qualify merely because its articles referred to members' development and no private profit. It read the constitutional club exemption as requiring both…
Could a full-time parish employee also serve on a regional transit authority board?
The 2000 opinion said yes for the described part-time appointive transit board seat. It also quoted a per-diem restriction for appointees who held seats on participating parish agencies, boards, or…
Could an elected Plaquemine official put a campaign sign on a city-owned vehicle assigned to them?
No. The 2000 opinion said the city's vehicle was publicly owned property under R.S.18:1470, so political signs could not be displayed on it even though it was assigned to an elected official.
Why was Oakdale's primary rescheduled after a candidate died and a new candidate qualified, then withdrew?
The 2000 opinion said the candidate's death reopened qualifying and the new qualification made rescheduling mandatory under R.S. 18:469. The law did not address the new candidate's later withdrawal…
Could a fire district enroll a chief who applied after age 50 and pay for his prior retirement service?
The 2000 opinion found the chief eligible because he began qualifying employment at 49, subject to the retirement board's approval and other requirements. The district could pay only its employer…
Could Carencro's elected police chief promote officers or raise police salaries without council approval?
The 2000 opinion said no. The chief had to recommend promotions and employee raises, but the mayor and board acted on promotions and the board enacted salary increases by ordinance. The board also…
What happened when no one qualified for a Louisiana justice-of-the-peace special election?
The 2000 opinion said the governor should call another special election when more than twelve months remained in the term. The sitting justice of the peace held over until the supreme court…
Could a Louisiana city let a church use its community center for services?
The 2000 opinion said Covington could contract with a church for paid, nonexclusive use of its community center. The city had to consider all applicants objectively and could not deny someone use…
Did Louisiana's insurance newsletter have to list postage separately in its public printing cost statement?
The 2000 opinion said the statement did not have to list postage separately, though postage had to be included in computing total cost. It found the newsletter's statement deficient for omitting the…
What happened to voter-approved maintenance tax money when Jefferson Parish merged garbage and drainage districts?
The 2000 opinion said the former districts' tax balances transferred to the new districts and could be pooled there. The money still had to serve the purposes voters approved for the garbage or…
Could a Louisiana parish coroner also serve as a part-time deputy custodian of voting machines?
The 2000 opinion said yes. Bienville Parish's coroner held a local elective office, and the proposed deputy voting-machine custodian job was a local part-time appointive position; the office found…
Did a Louisiana city prosecutor have to take leave while running for judge?
The 2000 opinion found no law requiring a city prosecutor to leave the job while seeking judicial office. Because this prosecutor was outside Civil Service, the mayor, as her employing authority,…
Did 486 votes constitute a majority in Brusly's five-seat council race?
Yes. The 2000 opinion said the statute required a count greater than the calculated result, and 486 exceeded 485.7. Rounding the threshold to 486 in the state's computer did not change that comparison.
Could Kentwood rent its community center for private events without bidding out the rental?
The 2000 opinion said the town could rent the center casually for events if rent reimbursed its costs. An ongoing lease for a private business's gain had to be bid under the Lease of Public Lands Law.
Could a Louisiana industrial development board issue bonds to renovate a university dining area?
The 2000 opinion said no. The proposed loan of bond proceeds to a university-supporting nonprofit for food-service renovations did not fit the industrial development board's statutory…
Did Louisiana's utility cost-pass-through law let a fire district charge public utilities?
The 2000 opinion said no. The statute allowed certain utility payments to be passed through to customers, but it did not give the fire district new authority to levy or collect a tax or payment from…
Did Louisiana's used-car dealer seminar requirement apply when an existing dealer renewed a license?
Yes. In 2000, the attorney general's office read the amended license provision to require the educational seminar for renewal applicants as well as first-time applicants.
Who had to pay to operate St. Mary Parish's health units if the parish had no state maintenance contract?
The 2000 opinion placed the funding and maintenance duty on St. Mary Parish, absent an annual contract with the Department of Health and Hospitals under La. R.S. 40:26.
Could a Louisiana mayor stop paying an appointed street commissioner by leaving the salary out of the budget?
The 2000 opinion said no. While the street commissioner remained in the position, omitting the salary from the mayor's budget would amount to trying to remove the appointee without the board of…
Could LaSalle Parish prohibit swine from roaming in an area state law excepted?
The 2000 opinion said no. State law expressly excepted the specified Little River area from its general ban on swine running at large, so the parish ordinance could not make that activity unlawful…
Could a Louisiana parish license an ambulance company that had sued a hospital under parish control?
The 2000 opinion said Concordia Parish could issue the ambulance company an occupational license if it met the parish ordinance's requirements. Its lawsuit against a hospital under police-jury…
Did a faxed signature satisfy an original-signature requirement on a Louisiana education grant application?
The 2000 opinion said no. When the grant application's instructions required an original signature, a faxed copy did not satisfy that requirement; the office discussed authentication procedures as a…
Did a Louisiana parish have to place its health unit in the parish seat, or could it open a satellite elsewhere?
The 2000 opinion said the parish health unit's legal domicile had to be in the parish seat, but satellite health units could be located elsewhere in the parish.
Could an insurer count a Louisiana venture-capital premium tax credit toward its income tax offset?
The 2000 opinion said yes. It treated a premium tax credit earned from a qualified investment in a certified Louisiana capital company as part of the insurer's income tax offset under R.S. 47:227,…
Were inactive voters included when Terrebonne Parish calculated petition signatures as 15% of registered voters?
The 2000 opinion said no. Terrebonne Parish's charter required signatures from 15% of registered voters, but the Election Code excluded inactive voters from the count used to set the required number…
Were 1978 Louisiana subdivision restrictions still enforceable in 2000?
The attorney general's office said the Lake Village restrictions appeared to remain within their twenty-five-year recorded term in 2000. It could not determine whether they had since been amended or…
Could a Louisiana registrar cancel a voter registration that used a restaurant address?
The 2000 opinion said a registrar could challenge registrations using an address identified as a business. If the voters could not establish that the address was also where they lived, slept, ate,…
Who could hire or dismiss a deputy marshal under the Town of Jackson's charter?
The 2000 opinion said Jackson's mayor and Board of Trustees had the final approval or termination authority, but the marshal had to propose the deputy's appointment or dismissal first. The board…
When could a Louisiana university employee receive payment for unused sick leave?
The 2000 opinion said the unclassified university employee could receive payment for up to twenty-five days of unused sick leave upon actual retirement. Ending employment alone did not trigger the…
Did a Louisiana charter school's troubled first operator bar approval of a different nonprofit's charter?
The 2000 opinion found no legal conflict on the facts presented. The education board was moving to revoke one corporation's provisional charter and had conditionally approved a new charter for a…
Could a Louisiana firefighter or police officer receive paid sick leave again after an old off-duty injury recurred?
The 2000 opinion said off-duty injuries could qualify for sick leave for both groups. It distinguished firefighters' sick leave, which it said was not confined to one calendar year, from police sick…
Could a Louisiana assessor employ the assessor-elect before the new term began?
The 2000 opinion said yes. The assessor-elect had not yet taken office, so employment in the incumbent assessor's office before the new term would not itself create simultaneous officeholding; the…
Was Harahan's term limit ordinance valid if adopted before the state authorization took effect?
The AG said yes. Harahan adopted the ordinance August 5, 1993, and it became law when the mayor signed it August 10, five days before the new statute took effect. The AG found no existing law that…
Could Louisiana's substance abuse counselor certification board contract out application reviews and exams?
The 2000 opinion said the board could contract out the investigation part of certification because no law prohibited it. It treated the proposed contract as subject to state consulting service…
Could a Louisiana city council member also work as a university financial-aid counselor?
The 2000 opinion said the Natchitoches council member could hold the proposed Verification Counselor job at Northwestern State University. Although state employment and local elective office…
Did Louisiana's 1999 victims-rights act apply to city courts as well as district courts?
The AG said the Act's references to “court” covered courts with criminal jurisdiction, including city courts, while excluding mayor's courts and justices of the peace. It distinguished that term…
Could Louisiana's tumor registry limit another state's indemnity promise to what that state's law allowed?
The AG said no. The proposed phrase “to the extent authorized” by the recipient state's law could leave Louisiana with less than the indemnification required by the statute governing exchange of…
Could Louisiana district courts use judicial expense funds to reimburse Judicial Compensation Commission members?
The 2000 opinion said yes. A judicial expense fund could pay commission members' actual expenses because the commission's work related to court administration; the same conclusion applied to other…
Could Louisiana's Secretary of State restore a notary commission after the notary surrendered it?
The 2000 opinion said no automatic reinstatement was available. A former notary had to apply for a new commission and satisfy the statutory requirements before being commissioned again.
Could a Louisiana sheriff charge a bond fee when a traffic offender signed a promise to appear?
The 2000 opinion said no. A qualifying traffic offender released on personal recognizance by signing the citation's promise-to-appear section was not required to pay a sheriff's bond fee.
Could Orleans's law enforcement district use voter-approved bonds to improve city-owned court buildings?
The 2000 opinion said yes if the city and sheriff agreed and voters approved the bonds under applicable law. City-owned court and district-attorney buildings could count as property of use or…
Could a Louisiana legislator put an official-looking decal or vanity plate on a privately owned car?
The 2000 opinion found no state-law ban on an official's privately owned vehicle displaying a decal, unofficial plate, or similar insignia identifying the driver as a public officer. It said public…
How did Louisiana classify a university support foundation as private under R.S. 17:3390?
The AG said the statute's own criteria governed the private status of qualifying alumni associations and foundations. Public funding did not alone remove that status, though records directly…
Could Louisiana's drinking water loan program lend to privately owned public water systems?
Yes, under the law reviewed in 2000. The AG said loans using federal grants and state matching money did not violate the state constitutional loan ban when they complied with the governing laws,…
Could a Louisiana town council member vote on police matters while that police department investigated the member?
The 2000 opinion said yes. It found no law requiring abstention in the stated situation, where the vote did not involve the member's personal economic gain, while noting the council member's duty to…
Could a sheriff hire a civil lawyer whose law partner represented indigent criminal defendants?
The AG found no direct conflict or material limit on indigent defense if the sheriff's lawyer handled only the civil work described. It warned that law-enforcement policy work might create a…
Could a Louisiana village resume its mayor's court after decades without holding a session?
The 2000 opinion said Pioneer could reactivate its mayor's court. The office did not say the village needed new legislation merely because the court had rarely met.
Could a pastor who was not a licensed counselor charge a Louisiana police department for officer counseling?
The AG said the pastor described could not provide mental-health counseling outside the employment of his church or religious institution without the applicable professional license. The clergy…
Did a Louisiana school board have to repeat a teacher's one-time extra pay the next school year?
The AG said no on the stated facts. Pay for two extra weeks of one-time work was neither fixed nor regular, so the teacher-salary protections discussed in the opinion did not require the board to…
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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.