§40. Additional copies of records; purchase of equipment; funds available for payment; copies of suit records

            A. The several clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers of conveyances and recorders of mortgages, throughout the state, are hereby authorized at their option to make additional copies*, by any means authorized by R.S. 44:116, of every nature and kind in their custody by virtue of their various official capacities as such clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers of conveyances and recorders of mortgages, filed or recorded in their offices prior to July 29, 1964, and subsequent thereto.

            B. Such clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers are hereby authorized to purchase the necessary equipment for photorecording, photocopying, microfilming, or electronic imaging, to lease such equipment or to contract with competent independent contractors, or both, according to the discretion of the clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers, to cause the records described in this Section to be copied and reproduced.

            C. Each such clerk of court and ex officio recorder and register is hereby authorized to defray the cost of copying, reproducing, and retrieving the records described in this Section out of any funds available in the clerk's salary fund.

            D. In the parish of Orleans the judges of the civil district court and the criminal district court, and in the remainder of the state the respective police juries or other governing authorities of the several parishes, are authorized to provide the necessary funds, when such funds are not already available, to enable said clerk of courts and ex officio recorders and registers to carry out the provisions of this section.

            E. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this Section or any other provision of law to the contrary, prior to destroying the original criminal records and any other records of every nature and kind that are deemed permanent under a record retention and disposal schedule adopted by the secretary of state and the clerks of court in accordance with R.S. 44:410 and 411, the destruction of which is authorized by R.S. 13:917, the several clerks of court, including the clerks of the Criminal or Civil District Courts for the parish of Orleans, shall make and retain in their custody a copy of such records electronically on nonrewritable magnetic, optical, or laser-type storage media, including but not limited to CD-ROM. No cause of action for any claim shall exist against a clerk of court for any damage or loss resulting from the destruction of an original record after proper preservation of the record in accordance herewith. However, all records in suits affecting records relating to immovable property, or adoption, interdiction, successions, trusts, or emancipation created prior to 1922 shall be retained in their original form.

            F. Repealed by Acts 2012, No. 101, §3, eff. May 11, 2012.

            Acts 1958, No. 350, §§1 to 4. Amended by Acts 1964, No. 415, §1; Acts 1972, No. 498, §§1, 2; Acts 1978, No. 365, §1; Acts 1978, No. 396, §1; Acts 2012, No. 101, §§2, 3, eff. May 11, 2012; Acts 2017, No. 173, §3.

            *As appears in enrolled bill.