Statement of Authentication of Electronic Record

In accordance with LSA-R.S. 44:39 and 44:30 and other applicable laws, infra., and in order to insure accurate, efficient and economical records filing, recordation, storage and management, the Jefferson Parish clerk of court uses a microphotographic/electronic digitizing process that (a) is recognized as an acceptable, appropriate means of records preservation and (b) produces a precise, unalterable, indestructible image of each original-source, hard-copy document presented for filing or recordation. The clerk of court assures the quality of every electronic image and warrants that every electronic image is an exact replication of its corresponding original-source, hard-copy document. The verified electronic reproduction of an original-source, hard-copy document is deemed to be original for any lawful purpose and is admissible in evidence in all court and administrative agency proceedings – local, state, or federal. After original-source, hard-copy documents are imaged, and the images have been quality assured, the hard-copy documents are discarded. [See also La. Code of Evidence Articles 904, 1002, 1003, and 1005.]

The clerk of court/ex-officio recorder of mortgages and register of conveyances (a) files [in the case of court records], (b) records [in the case of real estate and UCC records], and (c) retains – by means of the microphotographic/electronic digitizing method described above – all civil and criminal documents/records in the district, parish, and juvenile courts [La. Children’s Code Article 415(B)] and all documents/records pertaining to real estate and UCC transactions.

Direct electronic filing or recording, in lieu of filing or recording hard-copy paper documents of court, real estate, and UCC documents, is authorized by LSA-R.S. 44:39 and 40, LSA-CCP Article 258, LSA-R.S. 9:2601, et seq., La. Children’s Code Article 415(B). The electronic images generated by direct electronic filing constitute original documents.  The pleadings, documents and exhibits which are filed electronically using the JeffNet system become part of the official record at the time of filing.  In accordance with the procedures and systems established by the clerk of court, when paper pleadings, documents and exhibits are filed for record with the clerk of court, those pleadings, documents and exhibits are reproduced in electronic digital format and are then stored electronically in the JeffNet system and become the official record.  The electronic record as displayed on JeffNet is the official, authentic record on file with and maintained by the Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court. 

All electronic records are stored in the clerk’s information technologies infrastructure and are accessible via JeffNet, a secure Internet-based, restricted site enabled by a system with extensive built-in redundancy: a duplicate server in Fort Worth, Texas; two backup sets of archival-quality microfilm and/or Blu-Ray disks, stored in the Jefferson Parish General Government Building on the second floor and the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge; and magnetic tape stored in the Second Parish Court Building on the third floor.