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 Louisiana school assign custodial or food-service work instead of in-school suspension?
The AG said such work could be used if the school board's policy allowed it, the measure complied with the student-discipline statute, students and parents received the policy, and meetings informed…
Did a Louisiana sheriff have to pay back wages after charges against a fired correctional officer were dropped?
The AG found no state constitutional or statutory duty to reimburse this non civil service, at will former officer for wages after the charges were dismissed. It distinguished a separate statute on…
Could East Baton Rouge use public money to repair private sewer lines under an EPA consent decree?
The AG said the City-Parish could not generally absorb private owners' repair costs, even under its EPA obligation, because it could require owners to repair the lines. It could charge owners the…
Could a Louisiana school board require leave or dock pay when a teacher missed required professional development?
The AG said Grant Parish could require a leave request or deduct pay for teachers who missed the required monthly sessions, but could not impose both. It treated the added development time as…
Which Louisiana local government paid autopsy and coroner costs when the deceased lived inside a town?
The 2000 opinion tied payment for a natural death to the deceased person's municipality or parish of domicile, and payment after an accident or crime to the municipality or parish where the event…
Could judges of Louisiana's 24th Judicial District vote by proxy at en banc meetings?
The AG concluded that the judges could not vote by proxy under their then-existing local rules. Those rules provided for en banc meetings but did not authorize proxy voting; the opinion said a…
Could wine be shipped to a Louisiana consumer in a local prohibition area?
The AG said qualifying out of state wine sellers could ship directly to consumers in a prohibition area under the statute then in force, and Louisiana native wines could also be shipped intrastate…
Did a Louisiana airport authority have to solicit public bids before leasing land for crop production?
The AG said the cited statute did not require public bidding for an airport-property lease on a share basis for growing crops. Its specific agricultural-lease provision overrode the general…
Could Louisiana's psychology board recognize an interstate professional qualification certificate for licensing reciprocity?
The AG said the proposed reciprocity rule was valid if the certificate's qualifications equaled the board's requirements. Under the law reviewed in 2000, applicants also had to satisfy the cited…
Could a Louisiana city council member also serve part time on the state Real Estate Commission?
Yes. The AG said the cited law barred the combination of a local elective office and a full time state appointive office, while the commission position in this request was part time.
Could the New Orleans First City Court clerk use an expense allowance for office costs?
Yes. The AG said the clerk's expense fund could cover the office expenses described in the request, within the statutory cap of 10 percent of the clerk's annual salary.
Could a Louisiana town donate baseball equipment for a summer program for needy children?
Yes, under the 2000 opinion, if the program solely benefited children identified as needy through objective criteria. The AG also noted the town's separate authority to run recreation programs.
Could a Louisiana police chief appoint an unpaid reserve officer without aldermen approval?
No. The AG said a reserve with law enforcement powers needed board of aldermen approval even if unpaid. A purely honorary commission with no police authority could be issued by the chief without…
Could a Louisiana school board member work full time as a university job coach?
Yes for the job described. The AG said the university's Welfare to Work job coach qualified as professional educational employment under an exception to the dual officeholding restriction.
Should every co owner receive a Louisiana property tax assessment notice for jointly owned land?
The AG said property owned in indivision should be assessed to all record owners, with assessment mailings sent to each. It also said jointly owned land could qualify for use value if it met the…
Who appointed and audited the Pointe Coupee Parish Tourism Commission, and how could it use hotel tax revenue?
The AG said the parish governing authority appointed commissioners for three year terms, while the commission operated as an independent state political subdivision. It could use its hotel occupancy…
Who collected Louisiana's commercial bail-bond premium fee when city police made the arrest?
The AG said the parish sheriff collected and distributed the two-percent surety fee regardless of whether city or parish officers made the arrest and whether city or district court handled the charge.
Were court reporters appointed by 24th Judicial District judges and paid by the parish exempt from federal overtime pay?
The AG said the court reporters described were not within the executive, administrative, or professional exemptions. It concluded the parish owed time and a half for work over 40 hours a week or…
Which Louisiana state employee records could remain private in a public records request?
The AG said employee information had to be assessed by category and context. It identified social security numbers and certain tax details as private, while general job information and gross pay…
Could a Louisiana state employee use sick leave while taking federal family or medical leave?
The AG said accrued sick leave could substitute for unpaid federal leave only when the employer's leave policy allowed that use. It said the state civil service policy then in force did not allow…
Did ultrasound screening for cardiovascular disease count as practicing medicine in Louisiana?
The AG said yes. Screening people for evidence of disease involved examination for a diagnostic purpose within the statutory definition of the practice of medicine, even when the company described…
Could an assessor's deputy or employee also hold elected office in Louisiana?
The AG distinguished deputy assessors from ordinary staff. It said a full time deputy assessor could not also hold city, parish, or state elective office, while an assessor's employee could hold…
Could a victim's family inspect a Louisiana prosecutor's taped confession after the criminal case ended?
The AG said access depended on whether the conviction had become final. Once criminal litigation was finally adjudicated or otherwise settled, the prosecutor's case file became subject to public…
Could a Hammond city council member also work full time for Louisiana's elections commissioner?
No. The AG said city council membership was a local elective office and employment in the state elections commissioner's office was state employment, making the combination a violation of the cited…
Could a Louisiana police department withhold information from an ongoing criminal investigation at a civil service hearing?
The AG said information held by Monroe police that was subject to pending criminal litigation or would reveal a confidential source was outside required public disclosure under the cited records exception.
Could a Louisiana port district keep paying insurance for a worker who left before qualifying for retirement?
The AG said no on the stated facts. A worker leaving to receive Social Security, but not yet eligible to retire under the state retirement system, was terminating employment rather than retiring;…
Could eligible Louisiana students use TOPS awards at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary?
The AG concluded that eligible graduates could use TOPS at the seminary if it maintained regional accreditation, joined the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the…
Could Louisiana carry unspent riverboat gaming enforcement money into the next fiscal year?
The AG said the unspent and unencumbered surplus had to be returned to the state general fund under the fiscal year rule, up to the amount of general fund money drawn by the agency that year.
Could the Terrebonne Parish School Board add its own language to a voter petition to reduce board seats?
The AG said no. The school board's role under the charter was to specify the petition form, not insert its own message into the proposal. It deemed the added language beyond the board's authority…
Could Shreveport's mayor extend a stadium concessions contract to other city facilities without council approval?
The AG said no. The contract and authorizing ordinance addressed Independence Stadium, so extending concessions to other city facilities required a new council ordinance; the city could negotiate…
Could a Louisiana district attorney match employee contributions to a supplemental retirement plan?
The AG said yes for an eligible voluntary supplemental plan, including contributions for employees and officials, so long as any statutory compensation ceiling and federal deferral limit were respected.
Could a city council member also sit on Calcasieu Parish's gaming-related redevelopment district board?
Yes. The AG said the district board seat was part-time and appointive, so a city council member could hold it concurrently. He declined a definite answer for other local officials without details of…
Could a Louisiana college appoint campus police officers as ex officio notaries under the police chief statute?
No. The AG said the statute applied to municipal police departments and did not authorize public or private colleges to appoint ex officio notaries for campus police.
Could Louisiana criminal courts assess two separate district attorney fees in one case?
The AG said yes under the two statutes then in force. It concluded that each $10 fee applied to convictions and guilty or no contest pleas, and that the later statute did not repeal the earlier fee.
Could Port Barre give police dispatchers and jailers compensatory time instead of cash overtime?
The AG said an agreement made before overtime could provide compensatory time at no less than one and a half hours for each overtime hour requiring compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act.…
Could Ville Platte buy concrete from a company partly owned by its city clerk?
The AG said no while the clerk retained an interest in the company. Although the Ethics Board had found no bar under its 25-percent ownership rule, R.S. 33:385(C) separately prohibited a municipal…
Was a state owned golf course tax exempt when leased to a private operator?
The AG said the proposed Tournament Players Club land and improvements would qualify under the public property exemption because the state would own them and the facility served the public purposes…
Could a Louisiana registrar's employee also work temporarily for the U.S. Census Bureau?
The AG said no under the dual employment rule it analyzed. It found no exception for temporary federal census work or for census duties performed after registrar office hours.
Who paid towing and storage charges when a Louisiana sheriff seized a stored vehicle for a lienholder?
The secured lienholder, rather than the sheriff, had to pay the storage operator before the vehicle was surrendered under the statute discussed in the opinion.
Could a Louisiana home rule charter reduce an elected parish official's pay during the official's term?
The AG said an elected official's compensation could not be reduced during an existing term under the cited constitutional rule. A reduction could take effect when a new term began, including under…
Who could fill a Louisiana port commission seat after a parish president missed the appointment deadline?
The AG said the governor could appoint the commissioner after the parish president missed the 60-day deadline. The late parish appointment was void, and the former commissioner remained as a…
Did juvenile custody time start when a judge placed the child with Louisiana's corrections department as a probation condition?
The AG said yes: actual placement with the Department started the custody period. A disposition keeping the child beyond the statutory maximum was illegal and could be corrected through the court…
Could a Louisiana nursing home owner also own the pharmacy serving its residents?
The AG said common ownership was not itself prohibited by the cited state law. It left whether particular transactions violated the illegal remuneration rule to the health department as a factual question.
Could a Louisiana registrar use a self-prepared mail absentee-ballot request form?
The AG said the Commissioner of Elections' uniform-form process could be followed for a form like the one proposed, with Attorney General approval. He suggested contacting the Commissioner's office.
Would Louisiana's AG reconsider sales tax exemptions for purchases by public works contractors acting as port agents?
No new analysis was given. Because the issue was in pending litigation, the AG declined to answer the ports' questions and reaffirmed four earlier opinions.
Could one person be both a Caddo Parish justice of the peace and Rodessa's part-time police chief?
No. The AG said the judicial and law-enforcement duties were incompatible even if the police post was part-time. He also said the proposed part-time police employment did not qualify for state…
Could Tangipahoa Parish schools pay a midyear salary supplement from dedicated sales tax revenue?
Yes on the described plan. The AG treated the payment as an earned increase for future services funded by sales tax revenue dedicated to employee compensation, not a gratuitous bonus for past work.
Could a parish public health facility pay an employee two months' unearned severance on termination?
No. The AG said the proposed payment was not an earned benefit or legal obligation, so the public facility could not pay it without violating Louisiana's ban on donating public funds.
Could a Louisiana drainage district use an operations millage to buy equipment or build levees and roads?
The AG said the voted tax could buy equipment and materials essential to operating and maintaining drainage works, if those purchases were not capital outlay. It could not fund construction of…
Did a Louisiana school board have to choose its official newspaper by the lowest bid?
No. The AG said the board could use a low bid process but was not required to. Its selected newspaper still had to meet the statutory qualifications and publication rate limits.
Could a Louisiana clerk of court buy land in the clerk's own name for office space?
The AG said R.S. 33:4713 placed the duty to provide clerk office space and related capital costs on the parish, not the clerk. The clerk would need a statutory exception to acquire title personally…
Could Marksville's housing authority pay employees' lawyers in their personal defamation suit?
No. After the authority's own claim was dismissed, the AG found no legal authority for it to pay fees and expenses for two staff members continuing as individual plaintiffs; future payments could…
Could a Louisiana nonprofit hospital's separate medical office property receive a property tax exemption?
Possibly. The AG said nonadjacent property leased to medical professionals could be exempt if its commercial use related to the hospital's exempt purpose. The assessor had to decide that factual question.
Could Gueydan's elected police chief pay volunteer auxiliary officers without town approval?
No. The AG said auxiliary officers appointed as unpaid volunteers could not be converted to paid work or compensated at the chief's direction alone; the mayor and aldermen had to approve municipal…
Could Ball's mayor or aldermen sit on a parish waterworks district board?
The AG said Ball could not use its own appointment power or a job description to place its mayor or aldermen on the district board. A qualified mayor or alderman could be appointed by the Rapides…
Did Plaisance Water System's member vote replace its old board after a properly called meeting?
On the facts supplied, the AG said the new five-member board appeared valid and the old board should relinquish power if its terms had expired. An incumbent whose term had not expired would first…
When did a municipal user fee become a tax if a dedicated tax also funded the service?
The AG said a fee did not become a tax merely because it produced revenue. Its actual purpose and amount mattered; a charge clearly and materially above the cost of the service or benefit could be a…
Could Louisiana license an out-of-state esthetician by reciprocity, and could a board rule extend that route to manicurists?
The AG said state law allowed reciprocity for cosmetologists and conditionally for estheticians, with the board to decide the applicant's facts. It did not authorize reciprocal licenses for…
Did a Pollock council member automatically lose office after moving just outside town limits?
The AG said she remained in office until the change of residence was duly established and the office declared vacant under the governing process. He also discussed residence, domicile, voter…
Could Denham Springs' appointed police chief also be paid to direct Livingston Parish E911?
The AG said the dual officeholding law allowed the second job if it was part-time, but prohibited the combination if both positions were full-time. The classification depended on the hours and…
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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.