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 Pointe Coupee Parish include New Roads households in its waste contract without city approval?
No. The AG concluded that New Roads had authority over garbage service within its city limits, while the parish's jurisdiction covered unincorporated territory. Including city households in the…
Could the Baton Rouge airport commission set its own process for hiring professional services?
The AG said professional-services contracts were generally outside Louisiana's Public Bid Law, but the airport commission could not set its own procurement policy without delegated authority. It had…
Could a Louisiana city use public crews to bury privately owned animals on private land at no charge?
The AG said a public entity could not routinely pay to bury a privately owned animal on private land because it found no authority for that expense. In a genuine public-health or safety emergency,…
Could farmland near commercial property still receive Louisiana use-value tax assessment?
Potentially. The AG said nearby commercial and residential uses did not by themselves determine eligibility for use-value assessment. The land had to satisfy the statutory use and size or income…
Could a private Louisiana horse breeders association require banks to secure its public-fund deposits?
No. Although the association held money classified as public funds, the AG concluded that it was a private organization rather than a state depositing authority. It therefore could not require the…
Did a deferred felony sentence let a Louisiana fire chief keep his public job?
No. The AG concluded that a felony guilty plea under Article 893 was a conviction for the public employee removal statute, even though a court might set it aside after probation. Removal was tied to…
Could Dodson's aldermen ban on-duty Tasers, and did its elected police chief have to report training travel to the mayor?
The AG said no to both. It found that Dodson's police department needed an operating budget, that a Taser ban would intrude on the elected chief's control of department equipment and officers, and…
Could a Louisiana parish president hire an assistant outside civil service, and could the council veto department hires?
The AG said St. John the Baptist Parish's president could hire a temporary assistant responsible to him alone outside classified civil service under the parish's charter and rules. It also concluded…
Could Leesville enroll fire department personnel in the municipal employees' retirement system?
Generally no on the facts presented. The AG said Leesville's firefighters remained eligible for the Firemen's Retirement System despite a city ordinance exempting mandatory participation, and that…
Could the Houma-Terrebonne Airport Commission use a design-build contract for a capital improvement?
No, on the stated understanding that the commission lacked special statutory authority. The AG said a public entity needed specific legal authorization to use design-build for public works and…
Could St. Charles Parish pay for dumpsters used by owners to clean up blighted property?
The AG said the parish could provide dumpsters through its blighted-property procedure, but it had to recover all related costs from the private landowner. The opinion identified an ordinance lien…
Did Louisiana's Public Bid Law require a port security council to bid legal and accounting services?
No under Louisiana law as the AG described it. The opinion said the Public Bid Law governed public works and material purchases, not contracts for services, but cautioned that federal grant…
Could Jefferson Parish's council privately discuss hospital district marketing plans?
Yes, for discussion and development of market strategies and strategic plans as defined by the hospital competition statute. The AG treated the council, when acting as governing authority of the…
Could Slidell extend one garbage collection and disposal contract to 25 years?
Only the disposal portion could reach a total term of 25 years. The AG said collection and transportation services were limited to 10 years, even when all three services were covered by one…
Can a local housing authority operate in another Louisiana municipality or parish without its agreement?
No. The AG concluded that a local housing authority could operate beyond its statutory area only when the affected municipality or parish agreed to allow it.
Could South Mansfield let private groups use its public community center for short events?
Yes. The AG said the village could allow short events such as banquets and luncheons at its community center if it received value or a benefit commensurate with the use. It advised a fee schedule…
Could a Louisiana hospital service district pay into a parish economic-development committee?
No for the proposed Vermilion Parish agreement. The AG said promoting general parish economic development did not match the hospital district's statutory purpose, so the district could not…
Did extending and partly rededicating Lafourche Parish's library tax require a two-thirds council vote?
No. The AG said extending the 3.80-mill tax's duration did not increase its rate, so the charter's two-thirds vote rule for tax increases did not apply to the election ordinance. The proposed…
Did Mansfield's proposed legislative charter amendment pass the Louisiana AG's legal review?
Yes. The AG found the amended and restated Mansfield legislative charter consistent with state and federal law under La. R.S. 33:1181. The opinion reported three weeks of publication and council…
Could Hammond discipline an officer for refusing questions in an investigation that violated Louisiana's officer-rights law?
No, if the underlying administrative investigation failed the minimum standards in La. R.S. 40:2531. The AG said the department's cooperation rule could support discipline only when the…
Could a Louisiana city use volunteer prisoner labor at schools and let churches use city facilities free?
The AG said qualifying school property could receive prisoner labor if the prisoners volunteered and statutory conditions were met. It rejected free city-facility use for churches and other…
Could a Louisiana water district refund years of minimum charges on meters a customer said she asked to turn off?
Only if the district found a record of the customer's shutoff request and its own failure to act was the sole fault behind the charges. Without that finding, the AG said refunding the payments would…
Could a Louisiana school require written parent notice before giving emergency epinephrine to a student?
No. The AG said a school nurse or trained employee could administer auto-injectable epinephrine when they professionally believed in good faith that a student was having an anaphylactic reaction,…
Could a Louisiana fire district pay prorated vacation leave when a firefighter left midyear?
The AG concluded that St. Landry Fire District No. 3 could adopt a policy paying prorated vacation for the portion of a later year worked before separation. It could not award prorated leave during…
Could a Louisiana justice-of-the-peace constable use a locksmith to execute the court’s writ?
The AG concluded that a justice-of-the-peace constable could not use a locksmith to enter a locked building while executing that court’s writ. A narrow exception could apply when the sheriff…
Could Evangeline Parish license cockfighting when applicants claimed their chickens were a different species?
No. The AG said the applicants' domestic chickens fell within the Gallus gallus classification used in Louisiana's cockfighting prohibition. Evangeline Parish could not issue a local license…
Could New Orleans choose a civil service commissioner after Loyola submitted its third nominee late?
Yes. The AG said the council could consider the two timely names and a third name received after the university's deadline but before the council's decision. With all three names in hand before its…
Could a Louisiana tax hearing notice appear beside newspaper court news?
Yes, on the facts supplied. The AG said the hearing notice was outside the paper's classified and public-notice sections, even though the page contained editorial court-news coverage.
Did an industrial firm’s employee need a Louisiana engineering license for work done for its customers?
The AG concluded that industrial-firm employees could use the statutory engineering-license exemption for qualifying noncivil services performed on the firm's premises for customers or producing…
Did a Louisiana homeowner keep the homestead exemption after transferring the house to an LLC and retaining a usufruct?
The AG concluded that the described home was not eligible for the homestead exemption after transfer to an LLC, even though the former owner retained a usufruct and lived there. It said the…
Could Shreveport let deputies who were not POST-certified drive marshal vehicles home every day?
The AG concluded that daily take-home use of marshal-owned vehicles by non-POST-certified deputies was permissible only if the office could show a public purpose and a reasonable expectation of at…
What happens when a Louisiana police jury ties while appointing a public works director?
The AG said the Evangeline Parish Police Jury had to appoint its public works director by majority vote under the rules it followed. With no rule for breaking the tie, it should continue voting…
Did filling an unfinished Slidell council term count against the charter's two-term limit?
The AG concluded that the three Slidell council members who first filled vacancies had not completed two full four-year terms. After their first full term, they remained eligible to run for a second…
Was Plain Dealing's elected town marshal eligible for Louisiana municipal police retirement as a police chief?
Yes, on the facts supplied. The AG read Plain Dealing's amended special charter as making its elected town marshal the chief of police, and the marshal's stated pay exceeded the retirement system's…
Could a Louisiana hospital service district invest its general fund in stocks or stock mutual funds?
The AG concluded that a hospital service district could not use its public general-fund money to buy stocks, directly or through mutual funds. It viewed a 2013 statute as unconstitutional insofar as…
Did late tobacco-settlement payments follow the fiscal year received or the earlier year they related to?
The AG concluded that tobacco Master Settlement Agreement payments were allocated by the fiscal year the treasurer actually received them, regardless of the year they related to. Under the…
Which escrow and bond funds could Louisiana use for capital projects before and after a bond sale?
The AG said approved pre-sale lines of credit for bond-funded capital projects could draw on available money in the capital-outlay escrow account, subject to constitutional dedication and other…
Are personal political emails sent from a Louisiana public employee's work account public records?
Not automatically. The AG concluded that the specific personal emails were outside the Public Records Act because they were unrelated to housing-authority work, with no evidence of illegality or…
Could a Louisiana parish pay to defend council members sued over statements to a reporter?
The AG said the parish council had to decide whether the alleged statements were made in the members' official capacity and could expose the parish to liability. If so, the parish should provide a…
Could the Rapides Parish sheriff assign a storage-fee judgment to the company that kept seized vehicles?
The AG concluded that the Rapides Parish sheriff could assign his storage-fee judgment to the company that kept seized property. Whether the assignment gave up anything of value was a factual…
Could Louisiana police retirement systems use different age rules for lump-sum DROP payments?
The AG concluded that the two retirement boards could use different interpretations of when a member had 'attained age' for DROP distribution purposes. MPERS was allowed, but not required, to adopt…
Did an LSU health-sciences education facilitator qualify for Louisiana's dual-officeholding teaching exception?
Yes, for the job description submitted. The AG said the facilitator worked in a professional educational capacity under the dual-officeholding exception, while leaving ethics-code questions to the…
Could Louisiana use cotton growers' boll weevil assessment to fund eradication near the Texas-Mexico border?
The AG said the commissioner could use part of the existing assessment only after finding that the Texas-border project furthered Louisiana's eradication purpose and fit the 2003 referendum. The…
Did Gretna have to accept private third-party building inspections instead of city inspections?
The AG concluded that the cited state construction-code provisions did not require Gretna to accept certified third-party inspections in place of inspections by its Code Enforcement Department. The…
Did Mansura pay for a resident’s autopsy lab tests and coroner commitment fees?
The AG concluded that Mansura bore autopsy lab fees for a town resident, while the parish bore those fees for a resident outside an incorporated municipality. For coroner commitment fees, the…
After Shelby County, did Louisiana still have to obtain federal preclearance before changing voting procedures?
In 2013, the AG concluded that Louisiana was no longer covered by the Voting Rights Act's former coverage formula, so it did not have to obtain Section 5 preclearance on that basis. State laws…
Could White Castle’s elected mayor also teach for a local Louisiana school board?
The AG concluded that Louisiana’s dual officeholding law allowed White Castle’s elected mayor to work part-time or full-time as a teacher for a separate school board. It did not decide any…
Could Ferriday’s mayor veto a 3–2 board motion accepting a water-system proposal?
The AG concluded that Ferriday’s mayor could not veto the aldermen’s motion accepting a water-system proposal, and the 3–2 vote alone did not justify refusing to sign a later contract. A separate…
Did the Red River Waterway Commission need Natchitoches Parish zoning approval for an RV park?
The AG concluded that the Red River Waterway Commission was exempt from Natchitoches Parish Planning Commission zoning approval and its related review and permit process for the proposed RV park.…
Could a Louisiana village write off old unpaid water and sewer bills without forgiving the debt?
The AG concluded that Folsom could write off unpaid water and sewer bills for accounting after reasonable collection efforts, while keeping the debts collectible. It could not simply forgive or…
Did the 2013 petition to recall Port Allen's mayor have enough signatures for an election?
Yes. The AG said the registrar certified 1,387 valid names on the petition to recall Mayor Demetric Slaughter, exceeding the 1,271 required from a voting area with 3,818 electors. The governor could…
Why did the petition to recall Homer's mayor fail to trigger a Louisiana recall election?
The petition fell short on signatures. The AG said Homer's 1,981 registered electors required at least 660 valid signatures for a recall, but the registrar certified only 636, so the governor could…
Could a Welsh alderman serve as an unpaid reserve police officer for the same town?
The AG concluded that an elected Welsh alderman could also serve as an uncompensated reserve police officer. On the facts supplied, the reserve role was neither compensated public employment nor a…
Could Livingston Parish pay health insurance premiums for council members without exceeding its charter pay limit?
The AG said Livingston Parish could pay council members' health insurance premiums under state law and its charter, but the premiums counted as compensation. If existing pay already reached the…
Could Louisiana’s beef promotion council use the cattlemen’s association as a sole-source contractor?
The AG concluded that the Louisiana Cattleman’s Association would be the sole-source provider for the state beef promotion program if it was the only accepted industry organization. Another…
Could East Baton Rouge’s clerk pay full insurance premiums for employees who retired before a new benefits law?
The AG concluded that the East Baton Rouge clerk’s office could pay 100 percent of qualifying retirees’ insurance premiums even if they retired before the new statutory provision took effect. The…
Could Huey P. Long Medical Center be closed, privatized, or cut to cover another LSU hospital’s deficit?
The AG concluded that Act 220 barred closing Huey P. Long Medical Center or its emergency room without legislative approval and barred cutting its funds or staff to offset another center’s deficit.…
Could Tullos collect occupational license taxes after years of collecting from only one business?
The AG concluded that Tullos could collect occupational license taxes that had not prescribed if its ordinance had been lawfully adopted and remained in force. Past noncollection from other…
Could Erath maintain a nonprofit community building on town land without charging for the work?
The AG concluded that Erath could agree to provide maintenance for the nonprofit community building on town property in exchange for community access, but only if the town reasonably expected at…
Could Jefferson Parish pay its employees’ share of the parochial retirement contribution?
The AG concluded that Jefferson Parish could not directly pay the employee contribution to the parochial retirement system. It could increase employee salary by a matching amount, subject 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.