Catahoula Parish District Court

Catahoula Parish District Court Overview

Louisiana uses district courts as the main trial courts of general jurisdiction. Catahoula Parish is in the Seventh Judicial District Court, which also serves Concordia Parish. The official courthouse roster lists the local judge's office at the courthouse and identifies two divisions: Honorable Kathy Johnson, Division A, and Honorable John C. Reeves, Division B. The judges' office is listed at P.O. Box 600, 301 Bushley Street, 2nd Floor, Harrisonburg, LA 71340, with phone 318-744-5414 and fax 318-744-5406.

The Catahoula Parish District Court is not a stand-alone online filing system in the research. It is part of a courthouse-based record ecosystem. The Clerk of Court in Room 101 handles filings and copies. The District Attorney on the 3rd floor handles prosecution, traffic diversion, misdemeanors, felonies, child support, and other DA workflows. The Sheriff's Department in Room 105 handles arrests, jail custody, and law-enforcement functions. These offices work near each other but keep different records.

A federal comparison point for local users is the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Federal district court is separate from the Catahoula Parish District Court, so local case requests should not be routed there unless the case is federal.

Catahoula Parish District Court Divisions

Catahoula Parish does not have a long list of numbered district courts like a large urban parish. The official local source identifies two Seventh Judicial District Court divisions for the parish's district court work. Both divisions use the same judge's office address and phone. A case may be assigned by division, judge, case type, schedule, or local court process, so users should confirm assignment with the Clerk or judge's office before appearing.

The official federal electronic filing example comes from Western District CM/ECF.

CM/ECF is useful only for federal cases; Catahoula Parish trial-court filings are handled through the local district court and Clerk of Court.

Catahoula Parish Court Hierarchy

The Louisiana court structure runs from the Louisiana Supreme Court to the courts of appeal, then district courts and lower local courts authorized by state law. For Catahoula Parish trial-level records, the key court is the Seventh Judicial District Court. Appeals from final district court judgments generally move to Louisiana's Court of Appeal system, and official Supreme Court materials identify the Third Circuit Court of Appeal as covering Catahoula and other central and southwest Louisiana parishes.

Lower local matters may involve justice of the peace courts, mayor's-court or municipal-style proceedings where locally created, or city courts in parishes and cities that have one. The research did not locate a separate official Catahoula public case-search portal for those lower courts. That means district court users should avoid assuming that every citation, small dispute, or ordinance case appears in the same place as a district court case.

Catahoula Parish District Court Case Movement

Case movement depends on case type. A civil case begins when a petition is filed through the Clerk, followed by service, answer, motions, hearings, trial or settlement, judgment, and possible appeal. Divorce and family cases also move through district court, but access may be limited when children, support, protective orders, financial identifiers, or sealed pleadings are involved. Succession and probate-style filings also use district court because probate is a division of district court in this project map.

Criminal movement involves more offices. An arrest or citation may begin with law enforcement. The DA screens or prosecutes charges. The Clerk keeps the court file once a district court case opens. A defendant may see arraignment, motions, pretrial settings, plea, trial, disposition, sentencing, probation terms, post-conviction filings, or expungement proceedings. Traffic diversion can route through the DA and nCourt when a deferral letter has been issued, but that payment path does not replace the district court record.

Civil flow: Petition Filed › Service › Answer › Motions › Hearing or Trial › Judgment › Appeal

Criminal flow: Arrest or Citation › DA Review › Bill of Information or Indictment › Arraignment › Pretrial › Plea or Trial › Sentencing › Appeal

Catahoula Parish Clerk and DA Roles

The Clerk of Court is Larisa Holley Field. The Clerk's office is listed at P.O. Box 654, 301 Bushley St., Room 101, Harrisonburg, LA 71340, phone 318-744-5497, fax 318-744-5488, email catahoulaclerk13@gmail.com, with public hours Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except legal holidays. The Clerk is the local record custodian for district court filings, court copies, marriage licensing, conveyance and mortgage records, civil filings, election-related clerk duties, and certified copies handled through the office.

The Seventh Judicial District Attorney is Bradley R. Burget, serving Catahoula and Concordia Parishes. The Catahoula DA office is listed at 301 Bushley Street, 3rd Floor, Harrisonburg, with mailing to P.O. Box 597, phone 318-744-5232, fax 318-744-9587, and hours Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. DA pages identify separate workflows for misdemeanor, felony, traffic, child support, and worthless-check matters. The DA prosecutes; the Clerk files and copies court records.

Note: Room numbers are useful in Catahoula Parish because the justice offices are concentrated in one courthouse building.

Catahoula Parish District Court Appeals

Appeals from Catahoula Parish district court judgments generally move through Louisiana's Court of Appeal system before any Louisiana Supreme Court review. The research identifies the Third Circuit Court of Appeal as the appellate court covering Catahoula Parish in official Louisiana Supreme Court annual-report materials. Appellate work is not just a new search. It depends on trial-court filings, deadlines, notice of appeal, record preparation, and appellate rules.

Federal appeals are separate. A federal case from the Western District of Louisiana goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, not the Louisiana Court of Appeal. A parish district court user should therefore determine whether the case is state or federal before looking for appeal records. Local district court records begin with the Clerk and Seventh Judicial District Court; federal appeal records use PACER and federal court channels.

The federal appellate source for Louisiana federal cases is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

This federal appeal image helps mark the boundary between Louisiana state district court appeals and federal appellate review.

Federal Records Are Separate

Catahoula Parish is in the federal Western District of Louisiana, but federal court records are not Catahoula Parish District Court records. Federal criminal prosecutions, federal civil cases, civil-rights suits, habeas petitions, tax cases, and other U.S. law matters are filed in federal court. Bankruptcy records are handled by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Federal electronic records are accessed through PACER and CM/ECF, and those systems may require registration or fees.

PACER is the federal case-access portal for federal court records: PACER federal court records.

PACER should be used for federal case files, while state district court case files should be requested through Catahoula Parish's local court and Clerk channels.

Bankruptcy case access for the region routes through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Bankruptcy records may affect local parties or property, but the bankruptcy case file itself is federal and is not kept by the Catahoula Parish Clerk as a district court file.