Out of State Louisiana Expungement: How to Clear a Record From Another State

Your Louisiana Record Follows You Everywhere

A Louisiana arrest does not stay in Louisiana. When you were booked, your fingerprints were transmitted to the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information, and from there to the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the National Fingerprint File. That means your Louisiana arrest or conviction shows up on background checks in every state — not just the one where it happened.

If you were arrested while visiting New Orleans for a bachelor party, passing through Shreveport for work, or living in Baton Rouge during college, that record is now a permanent fixture on your nationwide background check. The only way to remove it is to file for expungement in the Louisiana parish where the arrest occurred.

You Must File in Louisiana (No Way Around This)

Louisiana does not allow you to file expungement petitions in your current state of residence. The petition must be filed with the Clerk of Court in the parish where the arrest took place, regardless of where you live now. If you were arrested in Jefferson Parish, you file in Jefferson Parish. If it happened in Orleans Parish, you file in Orleans Parish.

This is because expungement is governed by La. C. Cr. P. Articles 976–978, and jurisdiction lies exclusively with the district court that handled your case.

The good news: you do not necessarily need to travel back to Louisiana to get this done.

The Remote Filing Process

Most of the expungement process can be handled by mail and phone, though some parishes make this easier than others.

Step 1 — Get your Louisiana rap sheet. You need a certified "Right to Review" background check from the Louisiana State Police BCII. This is a fingerprint-based check that costs $26 (plus a $10 fingerprinting fee if done in person at LSP headquarters). From out of state, you can submit fingerprint cards by mail to LSP BCII in Baton Rouge. Your local police department or a private fingerprinting service (UPS Store locations often offer this) can roll your prints on an FD-258 card.

Step 2 — Get certified court minutes. Contact the Clerk of Court in the arrest parish and request certified copies of your disposition, bill of information, and court minutes. Most parish clerks will process these requests by mail or phone for a fee. Costs range from $20 to $60 depending on the parish.

Step 3 — Prepare the uniform forms. The Louisiana Supreme Court's uniform expungement forms (EXP 5 motion, EXP 7 affidavit, EXP 8 order) can be downloaded and completed from anywhere. The forms are standardized statewide under Article 986.

Step 4 — File the packet. This is where it gets parish-dependent. Some clerks accept mailed filings with money orders enclosed. Others require in-person filing. Call the criminal division of the parish clerk's office before mailing anything.

Step 5 — Pay the fees. The standard $550 filing fee must be paid via four separate money orders, each made out to a different agency: $200 to the Clerk of Court, $250 to the Louisiana State Police, $50 to the District Attorney, and $50 to the arresting Sheriff or police department. Money orders can be purchased and mailed from anywhere.

The Hearing Question

For most non-contested expungements, you will not need to appear in court. After filing, the served agencies have 60 days to review and potentially object. If none of them files a written objection, the judge signs the order without a hearing — you never need to step foot in the courtroom.

If an agency does object (the DA or State Police sometimes object to felony expungements), the court schedules a contradictory hearing under Article 980. At that point, you or an attorney must appear in person. Many out-of-state filers hire a Louisiana attorney specifically for this contingency — the attorney handles the hearing while you stay home.

For straightforward non-conviction cases (dismissed charges, DA refusals, acquittals), objections are rare. For felony conviction expungements, the risk of objection increases, and having local counsel becomes more important.

The NCIC Problem

Even after the Louisiana court signs your expungement order and the Louisiana State Police update their database, your record may still appear on FBI and NCIC searches run by employers in your home state. This is the gap that catches most out-of-state filers off guard.

The Louisiana State Police are supposed to transmit the expungement order to the FBI to update the federal repository, but this process can take months. Meanwhile, private background check companies that already cached your record will continue reporting it until they receive a certified copy of the signed court order.

Under La. C. Cr. P. Article 974, you have the right to mail a certified copy of your expungement order via certified mail, return receipt requested, to any company still reporting the sealed record. Once they receive formal notice, they are legally prohibited from disclosing it — and continued reporting exposes them to civil damages under both Louisiana law and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What It Costs From Out of State

The filing fees are the same whether you live in Louisiana or not: up to $550 for the court filing, plus roughly $26–$50 for the background check, $20–$60 for certified court minutes, and postage for certified mail. Budget $650–$700 for the full self-filing process.

If you need to hire a Louisiana attorney to handle the filing and any potential hearing on your behalf, expect to pay $1,500 to $2,500 in attorney fees on top of the court costs.

The Louisiana Expungement & Record Sealing Guide includes parish-specific filing instructions, the full forms packet breakdown, and a post-order enforcement checklist for clearing your record from national databases.

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