Evangeline Parish Traffic Court Records
Traffic cases in Evangeline Parish split across several offices. District matters run through the 13th Judicial District Court and the parish clerk. Ville Platte City Court is a separate Ward 1 court with its own clerk. Basile, Chataignier, Mamou, Pine Prairie, and Turkey Creek each run a mayor's court. Each one keeps its own docket. Those dockets cover municipal ordinance and traffic matters. Whoever printed the ticket holds the record and sets the response instructions.
A traffic record may show the citation or charge. The full court record can include the court, a plea or appearance, payment activity as the clerk makes it available, a judgment or dismissal, costs, and hearing settings. For a district case, make the request through the Evangeline Parish clerk. A city or mayor's court ticket belongs with that court alone.
Charge Code for Evangeline Traffic Tickets
Louisiana's statewide tool for checking a traffic charge and its costs is the Louisiana Supreme Court's Charge Code System. It is not a traffic docket search. It also takes no payment. Pick the court, enter the offense date, then search by charge name, statute number, or ordinance number. The portal recommends a statute or ordinance number for the best match. Use it to pin down the charge reference. The issuing court is still the place for case status, plea, payment, and hearing dates.
| Field or control | Use for an Evangeline search | Known format or limit |
|---|---|---|
| Choose Court | Select the court printed on the ticket. | Includes 13th JDC-Evangeline, Ville Platte City Court, Evangeline JP, and five mayor's courts. |
| Date of Offense | Enter the citation's offense date. | MM/DD/YYYY is required by the lookup instruction. |
| Enter Search Terms | Use charge name, statute, or ordinance. | Statute or ordinance is preferred. |
| Search | Runs the single-charge lookup. | It does not create a court case record. |
| Advanced Search | Optional Search By, law category, and charge category controls. | Dynamic options were not exposed in the public research. |
The official Charge Code landing page carries a warning worth reading: local ordinance and cost information may be incomplete there. For current local figures, the court clerk is the authority.
What you see on that page is a charge and cost tool. It is not an Evangeline Parish payment screen or a live citation docket.
Looking Up a Traffic Ticket
Read the ticket before you touch any search tool. Gather the Evangeline Parish court name, citation number, statute or ordinance, offense date, and appearance or payment date in one place. Charge Code works from the statute and offense date. The court finds the actual case with the citation itself. District matters go to the 13th JDC clerk at 337-363-5671. Ville Platte City Court answers at 337-363-1500. A mayor's court or JP matter belongs to whichever court is named on the citation.
- Read the court, offense date, statute or ordinance, citation number, and notice-to-appear information on the ticket.
- Use Charge Code only with the court, date, and charge information to check the official charge or cost reference.
- Call the issuing court for the live traffic case, current date, payment route, plea, or a copy of the court record.
- For a 13th JDC case, contact the parish clerk; for Ville Platte, contact the city court clerk; for a town or village, contact the mayor's court.
- Inspect the record at the appropriate counter or request a plain or certified copy from the issuing court when documentation is needed.
Some district court records must be requested in writing. The Evangeline Parish clerk publishes its contact channels and counter information for that. Ask the clerk to confirm the accepted format, the current fee, and how payment is taken.
Ticket Numbers Fail in Evangeline Charge Code
Here is a trap worth knowing. The Charge Code page states plainly that ticket and citation numbers cannot be used in its search. That limit is easy to miss. The ticket number is exactly what you need when you call the issuing court. In Charge Code, use the printed court. Then use the date of offense and the statute or ordinance. In a written request to the court, give the citation number and every other detail you have. The two routes do different jobs.
Never treat a Charge Code result as a payment confirmation, a plea record, or your current court setting. It answers one question: what the charge is. A result can also miss an incomplete local ordinance or cost entry. If the citation lacks charge details, call the issuing court rather than guessing from a short description.
The single-charge screen shows the split clearly. It asks for court, offense date, and search terms. It never asks for an Evangeline Parish citation number.
Note: A court clerk can locate a citation record with local case information, even though the statewide charge screen cannot use the ticket number.
How to Find Your Traffic Court Date
Your notice-to-appear date on the citation is only the start. Louisiana law requires a traffic summons to state a time and place. Ordinarily that is at least five days after arrest. An earlier hearing can be requested. A reset or continuance can leave that printed date stale. Evangeline Parish publishes no daily traffic calendar or public ticket-date form. Ask the issuing court for the current setting. Ask whether a failure to appear has been recorded.
| Citation number | The number printed on the ticket; use it with the issuing court, not in Charge Code. |
|---|---|
| Court | The named district, city, mayor's, or other local court that holds the actual traffic case. |
| Offense date | The date entered as MM/DD/YYYY in the official Charge Code lookup. |
| Appearance date | The date on the citation, subject to a later instruction, minute, or confirmation from the court. |
| Current setting | The newest date confirmed by the custodian, not merely an old notice or charge-search result. |
If the date looks unclear, call first. Ask for the present setting, the court contact, and the newest order or record entry that changed the appearance date.
Evangeline Traffic Courts to Select
The Charge Code court selector gives you a stack of local options. Pick 13TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT-EVANGELINE, VILLE PLATTE CITY COURT, EVANGELINE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, or the mayor's courts for Basile, Chataignier, Mamou, Pine Prairie, and Turkey Creek. Statewide choices and "Any" are there too. Picking a local court narrows a charge lookup. But the result is still not an Evangeline Parish case docket. What it does show is why the court line on your ticket matters.
Mayor's courts run regular dockets of their own. Ville Platte City Court is a Ward 1 court. And a city or mayor's court file never migrates to the parish clerk just because the citation arose in Evangeline Parish.
Evangeline Mayor's Court Traffic Dockets
The five mayor's courts, Basile, Chataignier, Mamou, Pine Prairie, and Turkey Creek, each keep their own municipal traffic and ordinance dockets. La. R.S. 33:442 requires a mayor to keep a regular docket and a perfect record of every case tried. So the citation's home court stays the record's home. A local ticket does not become a 13th JDC case just because it was written in Evangeline Parish.
Treat the court named on the citation as the place to go. That court confirms the actual case, the current setting, how to respond, and what court record exists. Charge Code can help you identify a charge reference once the right court is selected. It cannot replace the municipal docket or the court's own instructions.
Pay or Contest a Ticket
Your citation and the issuing court supply the payment and contest instructions, never Charge Code. Louisiana law lets a judicial district adopt a written guilty-plea and deposit process with consent. Evangeline Parish publishes no current schedule, though. Municipal courts may allow written promises to appear and mail payment under their own rules, with stated exclusions. The court named on the ticket decides which local instructions apply. It also decides whether a given response method is open to you.
| Payment route | Contest route |
|---|---|
| Use the court-approved payment or plea channel printed on the citation. | Follow the appearance instructions and contact the issuing clerk if the date is unclear. |
| Confirm the current amount and deadline with the named court. | Ask the court for the current setting and the process it requires for the response. |
| Keep the receipt and obtain a court record if proof of disposition is needed. | Keep the citation and any later court notice or minute that changes the hearing date. |
Failure to appear: Under La. R.S. 32:57.1, a magistrate or judge may notify the Department of Public Safety and Corrections/OMV after a written promise to appear is not honored. The statute provides a notice process and can lead to a suspension if the person does not appear or pay within the stated period. Call the issuing court promptly for the current case status and the court's instructions.
No County Payment Portal for Evangeline Tickets
Evangeline Parish offers no official online portal for paying a traffic citation. Charge Code cannot take payment either. Pay the city court, mayor's court, justice of the peace, sheriff, or clerk at the address printed on the citation, and confirm the court, the amount, the payment method, and the deadline before you send anything. A payment does not become a certified disposition until the court docket itself shows it.
Traffic Court Record vs Driving Record
Two different files track a Evangeline Parish traffic ticket. The court record lives with the clerk of the 13th JDC, the city court, the mayor's court, or whichever court issued the citation. It covers the ticket and what happened on the court docket. The state driving record is a separate file. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Office of Motor Vehicles, keeps it. A court disposition can be reported to OMV. Reporting does not turn the OMV file into the court docket, though. It also does not make the court clerk responsible for the state file.
| Question | Court traffic record | OMV file |
|---|---|---|
| Custodian | The issuing district, city, mayor's, JP, or other court. | Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Office of Motor Vehicles. |
| Primary content | Citation or charge, court, appearance or plea, disposition, costs, and settings as exposed by the court. | State licensing information and reports maintained by OMV. |
| Request route | Ask the issuing court or clerk for the traffic case record. | Request the separate state file from OMV. |
If a reporting problem comes up, check each file with its own office. Ask the issuing court about the court action and OMV about the state file. Neither record stands in for the other.
Failure to Appear on Evangeline Tickets
La. R.S. 32:57.1 sets out a state process for a driver released on a written promise who misses court. The department sends notice after the court notifies it. If the person neither appears nor pays within 180 days of that department notice, the operator's license can be suspended. A second notice goes out no later than 120 days after the court notice. The issuing court stays the source for the case and appearance details on the docket.
Once the person appears or pays and tells the department, the statute allows a $100 release or reissue payment once per summons. Of that, $12.50 goes to the court criminal fund. Fees not resolved within 60 days become final delinquent debt. Check any specific ticket with the issuing court.
Note: the notice identifies the summons, the failure-to-appear date, the court name, and the court contact. So keep every citation and court notice you receive.
Copies and Fees
Hard numbers on copies are scarce. Charge Code, a free web lookup, takes no payment at all. The current fine and cost amount for an Evangeline Parish, city, or mayor's court ticket has to come from one place. That place is the court that issued it. No official plain or certified traffic court-copy fee exists on any public source. Ask the issuing court about price, certification, payment methods, and turnaround.
| Item | Official amount or status | Record point |
|---|---|---|
| Charge Code lookup | Free web lookup; no payment accepted. | Charge and cost reference only. |
| Local fine or cost | Not located in official Evangeline sources. | Use the court named on the citation. |
| OSPD special court cost | $45 statutory special court cost in the 2025 OSPD report. | Not a universal traffic fine. |
| FTA release or reissue | $100 under R.S. 32:57.1 after appearance or payment and notification. | $12.50 goes to the court criminal fund. |
| Plain or certified court copy | Fee not located in official sources. | Ask the issuing clerk. |
Fees can shift, so check before you pay. The official costs-and-fees lookup runs statewide, yet it still points you back to the local court for current amounts on an Evangeline Parish traffic ticket.
That page explains the limit of any general search. A lookup cannot replace the current amount or payment instructions issued by the Evangeline Parish court itself.
12,508 Evangeline Traffic Filings
The Louisiana Supreme Court's 2025 annual report lists 12,508 District 13 traffic filings in Evangeline Parish. That figure covers district dockets only. It does not count city, mayor's court, or JP tickets. A citation from Ville Platte or a mayor's court may never show up as a parish-clerk district docket entry.
That filing count is a total, nothing more. It settles no fine, no case result, and no payment status for an individual Evangeline Parish traffic ticket.