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Office: St. James Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness – coordinated with the Sheriff’s Office; Dispatch: (225) 562-2200.
Sheriff: St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office – 5800 Louisiana Highway 44, Convent, LA 70723 (P.O. Box 83) | (225) 562-2378 | Fax (225) 331-8238; Sheriff Claude J. Louis Jr., in office since 2024, with 29 years of law enforcement experience; 145 regular deputies plus 11 part-time deputies. St. James Parish Correctional Center – (225) 562-2504 | Fax (225) 562-2225.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: LA Highway 18 (River Road) and LA Highway 44 run along the Mississippi River, serving Convent, the parish seat, with Vacherie, Gramercy, and Lutcher as other key communities between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Notes: St. James Parish, established March 31, 1807, is one of Louisiana’s original nineteen parishes, named for Saint James.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: St. James Parish Courthouse – 5800 Highway 44, Convent, LA; a separate Planning/Permitting office and courthouse annex operate at 2631 Highway 20, Vacherie, LA.
Notes: St. James Parish is home to Oak Alley Plantation, a National Historic Landmark in Vacherie built 1837-39, renowned for its quarter-mile double row of live oak trees planted before the house itself and its 28 Doric columns; genuinely significant in American horticultural history, an enslaved gardener at Oak Alley named Antoine achieved the first successful pecan tree graft in the winter of 1846-47, producing the “Centennial” variety and launching the nation’s first commercial pecan orchard. The parish today is also part of the industrial corridor along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans sometimes referred to as “Cancer Alley,” home to a concentration of petrochemical facilities; land-use and environmental-justice questions involving the parish’s historically Black communities have been the subject of ongoing public debate and litigation in recent years.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: St. James Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via stjamesla.com.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
St. James Parish Library System – confirm current address/phone via stjamesla.com.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Oak Alley Plantation and nearby Laura Plantation (a well-documented Creole plantation, also in Vacherie) are the parish’s most visited historic sites; the St. James Parish Recreation Department operates from 1961 W Main Street, Lutcher, LA | (225) 562-2337.
Notes: The genuine horticultural history behind the first named pecan variety at Oak Alley is a distinctive agricultural fact covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: St. James Parish Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via stjamesla.com.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
⚠️ No dedicated St. James Parish animal control phone number or shelter was confirmed in current sourcing – statewide directories list the parish’s animal control listing without an active phone number. Nearby options families may want to confirm directly include the St. John the Baptist Parish Animal Shelter (985-651-7387) or Ascension Parish resources, though service area restrictions may apply. Confirm current parish arrangements directly via stjamesla.com or the Sheriff’s Office.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: St. James Parish Utility Office – 2600 LA-20, Vacherie, LA 70090 | (225) 562-2412 | Emergency (225) 562-2200.
NOTES: St. James Parish is the fifth parish in the eighth batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine horticultural history behind the first named pecan variety at Oak Alley is a distinctive agricultural fact covered in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About St. James Parish County
St. James Parish is at the heart of the Cancer Alley environmental justice battle – the predominantly Black communities of St. James Parish have organized against petrochemical industry expansion in one of the most significant environmental justice struggles in Louisiana history.
Convent (the parish seat, population ~400) and Lutcher (population ~3,700) serve the parish’s communities along the River Road industrial corridor.
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St. James Parish Assessor at 5800 Highway 44, Suite 103, Convent, LA 70723, phone 225-562-2250. LA residential assessed at 10% of fair market value; $75,000 homestead exemption.
Courts & Legal
St. James Parish Clerk of Court at 5800 Highway 44, Convent, LA 70723, phone 225-562-2270, handles successions.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURT (Records, Vital Records, Mortgages)
5800 LA-44, Convent, LA 70723
(225) 562-2270
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
St. James Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
Local societies
No dedicated St. James Parish genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
A NOTE ON LOUISIANA LAW: Louisiana is the only U.S. state built on a civil-law tradition (rooted in the Napoleonic Code) rather than English common law. Louisiana doesn’t use the word “probate” – the equivalent process is called a “succession,” and its 64 parishes are the equivalent of counties elsewhere. Community property and separate property rules also work differently here than in common-law states, which can affect what’s actually part of the succession.
Where to go
St. James Parish 23rd Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 5800 LA Highway 44 (P.O. Box 63), Convent, LA 70723 (225) 562-7496 St. James Parish is on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, seated in Convent. The 23rd Judicial District also covers Ascension and Assumption parishes.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Small Succession Affidavit – under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3421 et seq., available for estates with a gross value of $125,000 or less at the date of death (or of any value if the decedent has been dead more than 20 years). No court proceeding is required. At least two people must sign – typically the surviving spouse (if any) plus one or more heirs, sworn before a notary. If the estate includes immovable property (real estate), the affidavit can’t be recorded until 90 days after the date of death, and it must be recorded with the Clerk of Court/Recorder in every parish where the decedent owned real estate.
Succession Without Administration (“simple possession”) – used when there are no debts to pay and all heirs agree; commonly resolved in 30 to 90 days via a Petition for Possession.
Administered Succession – required when a court-appointed succession representative needs to inventory assets and pay debts before distribution; typically takes 3 to 9 months, longer if contested.
Important: for anything beyond a small succession affidavit, Louisiana courts generally require a licensed Louisiana attorney to represent the succession – self-representation and generic online forms are not accepted the way they are in many other states.
Step 2: filing a regular succession
File a Petition for Possession (simple cases) or a Petition for Administration (if a representative and formal administration are needed) in the district court of the parish where the decedent was domiciled at death.
The court admits any will and, where needed, appoints an executor (testate) or administrator (intestate), issuing Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
In an administered succession, the representative prepares a sworn descriptive list of assets, pays valid debts, and accounts to the court.
The court issues a Judgment of Possession, which must then be recorded in the parish conveyance/land records and with the parish tax assessor to clear title.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by parish and case type; publication costs apply when legal notices are required.
A full administered succession typically requires attorney representation – flat fees for straightforward matters often run in the low thousands of dollars, more if contested or complex.
A small succession affidavit is far less expensive and, when no real estate is involved, can often be handled without an attorney – though even small errors can cause a bank, title company, or the Louisiana OMV to reject the affidavit.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
5800 LA-44, Convent, LA 70723
(225) 562-2200
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
5800 LA-44, Convent, LA 70723
(225) 562-2200
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
5800 LA-44, Convent, LA 70723
(225) 562-2260
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
St. James Parish Health Unit
(225) 562-2311
LA DCFS — Capital Region
(225) 342-4086
LA Medicaid
(888) 342-6207
St. Elizabeth Hospital (Gonzales)
steh.com (Ascension Parish — accessible)
Our Lady of the Lake (Baton Rouge)
ololrmc.com (accessible for major care)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: St. James Parish Health Unit – confirm current contact via Louisiana Department of Health regional office listings.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 22,000
Area: 258 sq mi
Established: 1807
Public Records
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