The Civil Processing Department is responsible for the preparation of all service documents issued in Civil and Probate suits of the 19th Judicial District Court. This preparation of documents is termed “processing a pleading”. All pleadings are filed in the Suit Accounting Department before being sent to the Civil Processing Department, to be sent to the Sheriff’s Office for service.

The department’s staff members work closely with the civil court judges, processing work from that division and preparing services.

When an attorney or runner files a pleading, our Suit Accounting Department will file the pleading and send electronically. If the filed pleading requires a judges signature, then it must be signed electronically. The Civil Processing Department receives these pleading after the judges’ have signed and will issue the necessary service documents. These services are placed in our Sheriff’s box and/ or mailed to the appropriate out of parish Sheriff’s Office. Each morning the East Baton Rouge Sheriff Department picks up the service documents. Services via Private Process Server are mailed back to the filing attorney; the attorney or runner is responsible for giving theses service documents to the actual Private Process Server.

Street address information for service is mandatory. A Post Office Box number is not a sufficient address; the Sheriff will not serve a Post Office Box.

Information concerning necessary documents cannot be provided, nor can questions concerning legal procedures be answered by this department. Deputy Clerks of Court are not qualified to make legal determinations or give legal advice.