How to Get an Emergency Custody Order in Louisiana

To get an emergency custody order in Louisiana, a parent or legal guardian files a verified petition for an ex parte temporary custody order under Code of Civil Procedure Article 3945 in the proper parish, supported by an attorney’s written certification and specific sworn facts showing the child faces immediate and irreparable harm.¹ If the judge signs it, the order takes effect that day, lasts up to 30 days, and sets a hearing where the other parent gets to respond.

What You Have to Prove

A judge will not sign an ex parte custody order unless the petition shows, through specific facts, that the child will suffer immediate and irreparable injury before the other parent or their attorney can be heard.¹ That standard is deliberately high. General concerns about parenting, lifestyle disagreements, or messy household rules will not clear it. The petition needs to describe a situation where even a few weeks’ wait for a normal hearing would put the child in serious danger: ongoing physical abuse, credible threats, exposure to dangerous conditions in the home.

Specificity decides most petitions. “He hit the child on June 3 hard enough to leave a bruise on her left arm” is the kind of detail judges look for. “He is abusive” is not. Dates, times, observable injuries, witnesses, and documents are what move a judge to sign without hearing the other side first.

The Attorney Certification Requirement

Article 3945 requires an attorney’s written certification filed alongside the petition. The attorney must certify either the efforts made to give the other parent reasonable notice of the filing, or the specific reasons why notice should not be required.¹ Louisiana’s District Court Rules reinforce the point: the court-approved form (Appendix 29.0A) states the court will not consider any application unless it is on the approved form and is accompanied by a Certification of Applicant’s Attorney.²

As a practical matter, this makes filing a true emergency custody petition without a lawyer very difficult. If cost is a problem, contact your local legal aid organization or the Louisiana State Bar Association’s lawyer referral service. For situations involving domestic violence, shelters and advocacy groups often have attorney referrals of their own.

What Goes in the Filing

The filing package has two core documents. The first is a verified petition laying out the legal request and the facts behind it; “verified” means the person filing swears under oath that the facts are true. The second is the attorney certification. Some parishes also accept a supporting affidavit alongside or in place of the verified petition, as long as it contains the same specific, sworn facts.¹

Attach whatever supporting evidence you have: photographs, medical records, police reports, text messages, school records. Each piece of corroboration makes the emergency harder to doubt.

Louisiana also requires every party in a custody proceeding to provide a UCCJEA information affidavit. Under Revised Statutes 13:1821, you must disclose the child’s current address, every place the child has lived during the past five years, and the names and current addresses of every person the child has lived with during that period.³ You also need the full legal names and birth dates of both parents and the child. The court-approved application form is available from the Clerk of Court or on the Louisiana Supreme Court’s website.

Where to File and What It Costs

Venue matters, and getting it wrong can get the petition rejected. For a new custody case, you file in the parish where either parent is domiciled or in the parish of the last matrimonial domicile. To modify an existing custody order, you file in the parish where the custodial parent lives or where the original decree was rendered.⁴ Venue follows a parent’s domicile, not necessarily where the child happens to be at the moment.

Filing fees vary widely by parish. Lafayette Parish, for example, charges a $700 advanced deposit for an ex parte custody petition.⁵ Call the Clerk of Court in the parish where you plan to file for the exact amount. If you cannot afford the costs, submit an In Forma Pauperis (IFP) affidavit asking the court to waive fees. The IFP application requires you to disclose your financial situation under oath and must include a supporting affidavit from a third person who knows your financial condition and believes you cannot pay.⁶

What Happens After You File

Once the clerk processes the paperwork and assigns a docket number, the petition goes to the judge’s chambers for ex parte review, usually the same day. The judge reads the verified petition, any supporting affidavit, and the attorney certification, then decides whether the legal threshold has been met.

If the judge grants the order, it takes effect immediately on signing. The order must be endorsed with the date it was signed and the date and time of the rule to show cause hearing.¹ The other parent must then be formally served. Service is typically handled by the civil sheriff’s office in the parish where the other parent is located, at a fee of $30 per service.⁷ If the sheriff cannot complete service or is too slow, you can ask the judge to appoint a private process server.

If the judge denies the petition, the case does not end. The court must still schedule a rule to show cause hearing and allocate time each parent spends with the child in the meantime, unless doing so would itself cause irreparable injury to the child.¹ A denial of the ex parte order means only that the judge did not find the situation urgent enough to act without the other side present.

Built-In Limits on the Order

Article 3945 writes several automatic safeguards into every ex parte order:

The order expires by operation of law within 30 days of signing. A court can extend it once for up to 15 additional days if good cause is shown before it expires.
Unless the petition specifically demonstrated that visitation itself would cause irreparable harm, the order must give the other parent at least 48 hours of visitation during every 15-day period.
An ex parte order that fails to comply with these requirements is unenforceable and void.¹

The 48-hour visitation rule surprises many petitioners. If you believe any contact between the child and the other parent would be dangerous, the verified petition has to say so, with specific facts. Otherwise, visitation goes in by default.

The Rule to Show Cause Hearing

The statute requires the rule to show cause hearing to be assigned no more than 30 days after the ex parte order is signed.¹ This is where the other parent finally responds. Both sides present evidence, call witnesses, and argue. Because the ex parte order expires within 30 days no matter what, missing this hearing effectively ends the emergency arrangement.

Service matters here too. The other parent must be properly served before the hearing to satisfy due process. If the other parent is avoiding service or cannot be located, your attorney needs to raise that with the court quickly; an unserved respondent can later challenge the whole proceeding. At the hearing, the judge can keep the current arrangement in place, change it, or dissolve the emergency order and return the child to the other parent.

If the Case Involves Domestic Violence

Article 3945 does not apply to custody requests brought under Louisiana’s domestic violence statutes. The article explicitly carves out cases filed under the Domestic Abuse Assistance Act (R.S. 46:2131 and following), the Post-Separation Family Violence Relief Act (R.S. 9:361 and following), and Children’s Code Article 1564 and following.¹ If your situation involves domestic violence, a protective order may be the better fit. Those cases have their own forms, procedures, and standards, several of which are more accessible without an attorney. A domestic violence hotline or local legal aid office can help you pick the right filing.

If the Child Was Recently Brought From Another State

Interstate situations add a jurisdictional layer. Under Revised Statutes 13:1816, a Louisiana court can exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction if the child is physically present in the state and has been abandoned, or if the child, a sibling, or a parent needs emergency protection from abuse or threats of abuse.⁸

That emergency jurisdiction is temporary. If no custody case exists in the child’s home state and no one files one, a Louisiana order can eventually become permanent once Louisiana becomes the child’s home state. If a case does exist or gets filed in the home state, the Louisiana court must communicate with that court, and the Louisiana order lasts only long enough for the petitioner to get an order from the home state.⁸ An attorney is close to essential in these cases.

What Happens If You Exaggerate

Everything in the verified petition and any supporting affidavit is sworn under oath. Lying is perjury. Revised Statutes 14:123 defines perjury as intentionally making a false statement under oath in a judicial proceeding on a material issue, and in civil proceedings the penalty is a fine up to $10,000, imprisonment at hard labor for up to five years, or both.⁹

The practical consequences in family court can hit harder than the criminal exposure. Judges who catch fabricated or inflated allegations often respond by awarding custody to the other parent, imposing sanctions, or both. Save the emergency process for genuine emergencies, and let the specific facts in the petition carry the weight.

1
Justia. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 3945 – Incidental Order of Temporary Child Custody; Injunctive Relief; Exceptions
2
Louisiana Supreme Court. Louisiana District Court Rules – Appendix 29.0A
3
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 13 1821
4
Justia. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 74.2 – Custody Proceedings; Support; Forum Non Conveniens
5
Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court. Fees
6
Louisiana Supreme Court. Louisiana District Court Rules – Appendix 8.0 In Forma Pauperis Affidavit
7
Justia. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 13 5530 – Fees in Civil Matters
8
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 13 1816 – Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction
9
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 14 123 – Perjury