8.1 IFP Benefits

La. C.C.P. art. 5185 details the many entitlements of a litigant if IFP status is granted.1  These include:

(1) All services required by law of a sheriff, clerk of court, court reporter, notary, or other public officer in, or in connection with, the judicial proceeding, including but not limited to the filing of pleadings and exhibits, the issuance of certificates, the certification of copies of notarial acts and public records, the issuance and service of subpoenas and process, the taking and transcribing of testimony, and the preparation of a record of appeal.

(2)(a) The right to the compulsory attendance of not more than six witnesses for the purpose of testifying, either in court or by deposition, without the payment of the fees, mileage, and other expenses allowed these witnesses by law . . . [as well as] an order permitting the party to subpoena additional witnesses at the expense of the parish.

(3) The right to a trial by jury and to the services of jurors, when allowed by law and applied for timely.

(4) The right to have any judgment or order filed and to receive one certified copy of the judgment or order.

(5) The right to a devolutive appeal, and to apply for supervisory writs.2

Although substantial, the services listed in Article 5185 are “non-exclusive” and should be read to implicate any “routine, commonplace and recognized duties” of court officers.3  This more expansive reading has led courts to include the costs of electronic filing as a service for the IFP litigant.4  Clearer still—and related to the durability of IFP status5 —a clerk of court cannot refuse to lodge an IFP litigant’s appeal6  or deny an IFP litigant a certified copy of a divorce decree.7

One service not included in IFP coverage is court reporter transcription outside of an official court proceeding.8  As a practical matter, this greatly reduces an IFP litigant’s ability to take depositions. Parties, however, can agree to abide by the default rules found in La. C.C.P. art. 1920: “[C]osts shall be taxed against the party cast [in judgment] . . . .”9  In such a case, the IFP litigant risks a larger bill if unsuccessful at the end of the proceedings.

• 1La. C.C.P. art. 5185.
• 2Id.
• 3State ex rel. Aucoin v. Blakeman, 207 So. 2d 860, 862 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1968).
• 4See Tenney v. Burlington N. & Sante Fe Ry. Co., 2003-1260 (La. 1/21/04), 863 So. 2d 526, 528 (“Clearly, the filing of a petition by facsimile transmission is a ‘service required by law’ of a clerk of court . . . .”).
• 5On the durability of IFP status, see Section 4.5.
• 6Mason v. Hendrick, 2019-113 (La. App. 3d Cir. 4/17/19), 268 So. 3d 1074, 1078 (“[T]he clerk of court erroneously advised the Relator that the record would not be lodged without payment of the estimated costs of the appeal. Accordingly . . . the clerk of court [is] ordered to lodge the appellate record per the trial court’s September 10, 2018 order granting a devolutive appeal.”); Walcott v. Dep’t of Health & Valley Catering, 2021-0019, p. 1 (La. App. 1 Cir. 3/29/21), 2021 WL 1171179 (“The plaintiff was granted pauper status . . . . Accordingly, the portion of the trial court’s . . . order conditioning . . .  [the] devolutive appeal on the payment of court costs is reversed. This matter is remanded to the trial court with instructions . . . to direct the clerk of court to prepare and lodge the record.”).
• 7Carline v. Carline, 93-1505, p. 3 (La. App. 1 Cir. 10/7/94), 644 So. 2d 835, 837.
• 8See Taylor v. Broom, 526 So. 2d 1367, 1372 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1988) (emphasis original) (“We have found no law, and none has been cited to us, which requires clerks of court (or their deputies) or notaries public to take depositions; they are authorized to do so but have no affirmative duty to do so.”).
• 9La. C.C.P. art. 1920.