ADAC-Legal-US-LA 1.0 — Louisiana Jurisdiction Profile

Version: 1.0
Status: Stable
Copyright: © 2026 InnoVadens, LLC. All rights reserved.
Date: 2026
Parent Profile: ADAC-Legal-US 1.0 — United States Jurisdiction Profile

Abstract

The ADAC-Legal-US-LA jurisdiction profile extends the ADAC-Legal-US 1.0 profile with terminology, well-known value sets, and field guidance specific to the Louisiana legal system. Louisiana is the only U.S. state whose private law is based on the civil law tradition, derived from the Napoleonic Code and the French and Spanish legal systems that governed the territory before statehood. This produces a legal vocabulary, document taxonomy, and court structure that differ materially from all other U.S. states.

This specification is a companion document to ADAC-Legal-US 1.0. Containers using this jurisdiction profile still use metadata/profiles/legal.json with profileType: "legal" and jurisdictionProfile: "us-la".

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Conformance
3. Terminology
4. Relationship to Parent Profiles
5. Jurisdiction Profile Identifier
6. Louisiana-Specific Well-Known Values
7. Louisiana-Specific Field Guidance
8. Louisiana Court System Reference
9. Complete Louisiana Container Example
10. Validation
11. References
12. Version History

1. Introduction

1.1 Problem Statement

Louisiana's legal system is fundamentally different from the other 49 U.S. states:

• Civil law tradition — Louisiana private law derives from the Napoleonic Code, the French Civil Code, and Spanish colonial law. Common law concepts like "consideration" in contracts have no direct equivalent. Property law uses "usufruct" and "naked ownership" rather than common law life estates. Successions (probate) follow forced heirship rules unknown to common law.
• Distinct terminology — Many legal concepts use French-derived terms that have no common law equivalent. A "reconventional demand" is a counterclaim. A "parish" is a county. A "successions" proceeding is probate. An "authentic act" is a document executed before a notary and two witnesses with the force of a judgment.
• The notary as quasi-judicial officer — Louisiana notaries have powers far exceeding those of notaries in other states: they can execute authentic acts, perform real estate closings, prepare successions documents, and create inventories — all without court involvement.
• Distinct document types — Notarial acts, authentic acts, olographic (handwritten) wills, mystic (sealed) wills, successions petitions, interdiction proceedings, and tutorship proceedings do not exist in common law jurisdictions.
• Parish-based court organization — Louisiana courts are organized by judicial districts covering one or more parishes, not counties.

The base ADAC-Legal-US specification cannot capture these structural differences with its common-law-oriented value sets.

1.2 Solution

ADAC-Legal-US-LA addresses these needs by defining:

• Additional well-known values for document types, matter types, custody actions, and redaction reasons specific to Louisiana civil law practice.
• Terminology mapping between Louisiana civil law terms and their closest common law equivalents, enabling cross-jurisdiction interoperability.
• Field guidance for populating case references using Louisiana conventions (parish-based jurisdiction, judicial district numbering, CDC docket format).
• A reference model for the Louisiana court hierarchy.

1.3 Scope

This specification defines:

• The "us-la" jurisdiction profile identifier and its scope
• Louisiana-specific additions to ADAC-Legal well-known value sets
• Terminology cross-reference between Louisiana civil law and common law
• Guidance on populating base fields for Louisiana practice
• A reference model for the Louisiana court hierarchy

This specification does not define:

• The ADAC core container format (see ADAC 1.0)
• The base ADAC-Legal profile schema (see ADAC-Legal 1.0)
• The base U.S. jurisdiction profile (see ADAC-Legal-US 1.0)
• Application-level APIs, user interfaces, or enforcement mechanisms

1.4 Audience

This specification is intended for:

• Software developers implementing Louisiana legal document management
• Legal technologists at Louisiana law firms and litigation support vendors
• Genealogy researchers working with Louisiana successions, conveyance, and notarial records
• Archivists preserving Louisiana parish court records, notarial archives, and conveyance office documents

2. Conformance

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

2.1 Jurisdiction Profile Conformance

An ADAC-Legal container conforms to this jurisdiction profile when:

1. It conforms to ADAC-Legal 1.0 (valid ADAC container with profileType: "legal").
2. It conforms to ADAC-Legal-US 1.0 (all US-level requirements).
3. The jurisdictionProfile field in legal.json is set to "us-la".
4. The jurisdiction.country field, when populated, is "US".
5. The jurisdiction.state field, when populated, is "Louisiana".

2.2 Additive Inheritance

This specification follows the additive inheritance model defined in ADAC-Legal 1.0 §7.3:

• ✅ Adds Louisiana-specific well-known values to existing value sets
• ✅ Provides Louisiana-specific guidance on populating base fields
• ✅ Defines Louisiana-specific concepts and terminology
• ❌ Does NOT remove or redefine any base ADAC-Legal or ADAC-Legal-US fields or values
• ❌ Does NOT modify the ADAC-Legal JSON schema
• ❌ Does NOT modify the ADAC core specification

All base ADAC-Legal and ADAC-Legal-US well-known values remain valid and available in Louisiana containers.

2.3 Forward Compatibility

Readers MUST tolerate unknown JSON properties in all structures, consistent with ADAC-Legal 1.0 §6.3. Louisiana-specific values that appear in well-known value set fields are ordinary strings — applications that do not recognize them MUST preserve them during round-trip serialization.

3. Terminology

3.1 Louisiana-Specific Terms

3.2 Terminology Cross-Reference

This table maps Louisiana civil law terms to their closest common law equivalents for cross-jurisdiction interoperability:

4. Relationship to Parent Profiles

4.1 Inheritance Chain

A container with "jurisdictionProfile": "us-la" is simultaneously:

• A valid ADAC 1.0 container
• A valid ADAC-Legal 1.0 container (base profile)
• A valid ADAC-Legal-US 1.0 container (country layer)
• A valid ADAC-Legal-US-LA 1.0 container (this specification)

4.2 What This Specification Adds

4.3 Container Format

No changes. Louisiana containers use the same structure as all ADAC-Legal containers:

• File extension: .adac
• Profile file: metadata/profiles/legal.json
• profileType: "legal"
• jurisdictionProfile: "us-la"

5. Jurisdiction Profile Identifier

5.1 When This Profile Applies

Use "jurisdictionProfile": "us-la" when:

• The legal matter is governed by Louisiana state law.
• The document was filed in, produced by, or recorded in a Louisiana state court, parish clerk's office, notarial archive, conveyance office, or mortgage office.
• The document involves Louisiana-specific legal concepts (successions, forced heirship, authentic acts, tutorship, interdiction, community property under Louisiana Civil Code).

Use the base US profile ("us") instead when:

• The matter is in a federal court sitting in Louisiana applying federal (not state) law. However, federal courts in Louisiana applying Louisiana substantive law (e.g., diversity jurisdiction) MAY use "us-la".

6. Louisiana-Specific Well-Known Values

The following value sets extend both the base ADAC-Legal and ADAC-Legal-US well-known values. All parent values remain valid — these are additions only.

6.1 Document Types

Additions to classification.documentType.

6.2 Matter Types

Additions to caseReference.matterType.

6.3 Custody Actions

Additions to custodyChain[].action.

6.4 Redaction Reasons

Additions to redaction annotation reason.

6.5 Confidentiality Levels

No Louisiana-specific additions. The base ADAC-Legal and ADAC-Legal-US confidentiality levels are sufficient for Louisiana practice.

7. Louisiana-Specific Field Guidance

7.1 Case Reference

7.1.1 Case Number

Louisiana state courts use varying case number formats by judicial district. Common patterns:

7.1.2 Court Name

The caseReference.courtName field SHOULD use the official court name:

7.1.3 Jurisdiction

When jurisdictionProfile is "us-la":

Implementation note: Applications displaying Louisiana containers SHOULD render the jurisdiction.county label as "Parish" rather than "County" when jurisdictionProfile is "us-la".

7.2 Notarial Act Metadata

Louisiana notarial acts carry specific metadata not found in common law jurisdictions. When archiving a notarial act, the following base fields SHOULD be populated:

7.3 Successions Documents

Louisiana successions proceedings produce a distinctive set of documents:

7.4 Retention Policy

Louisiana has specific document retention requirements:

8. Louisiana Court System Reference

8.1 Court Hierarchy

8.2 Judicial Districts

Louisiana has 42 judicial districts. Some cover a single parish; others cover multiple parishes. The district number does not correspond to the parish FIPS code.

8.3 Notarial Archives

Louisiana maintains parish-level notarial archives that preserve original notarial acts. The Notarial Archives for the Parish of Orleans is the largest and oldest in the United States, dating to 1733.

9. Complete Louisiana Container Example

9.1 Container Structure

dupont-succession-orleans-2025.adac
├── manifest.json
├── master/
│   ├── master_0001.tif              (Page 1 — Judgment of Possession)
│   └── master_0002.tif              (Page 2 — Judgment of Possession, continued)
├── metadata/
│   ├── core.json
│   └── profiles/
│       └── legal.json
├── regions/
│   └── master-001.regions.json
└── provenance/
    ├── log.json
    └── checksums.json

9.2 Legal Profile (metadata/profiles/legal.json)

{
  "profileVersion": "1.0",
  "profileType": "legal",
  "jurisdictionProfile": "us-la",
  "caseReference": {
    "caseNumber": "2025-03456",
    "courtName": "Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans",
    "jurisdiction": {
      "country": "US",
      "state": "Louisiana",
      "county": "Orleans"
    },
    "matterType": "successions",
    "caption": "Succession of Jean-Pierre Dupont",
    "parties": [
      { "name": "Marie Dupont", "role": "petitioner" },
      { "name": "Estate of Jean-Pierre Dupont", "role": "decedent" }
    ]
  },
  "classification": {
    "documentType": "judgmentOfPossession",
    "filingDate": "2025-06-15T00:00:00Z",
    "confidentialityLevel": "public",
    "batesRangeStart": "DUPONT000001",
    "batesRangeEnd": "DUPONT000002",
    "retentionPolicy": {
      "period": "permanent",
      "disposition": "archive"
    }
  },
  "custodyChain": [
    {
      "action": "received",
      "custodian": "Clerk of Court, Orleans Parish",
      "timestamp": "2025-06-15T14:00:00Z",
      "organization": "Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans",
      "notes": "Judgment of Possession signed by Judge, filed and recorded."
    },
    {
      "action": "recordedConveyanceOffice",
      "custodian": "Register of Conveyances, Orleans Parish",
      "timestamp": "2025-06-16T09:00:00Z",
      "organization": "Orleans Parish Conveyance Office",
      "notes": "Recorded to transfer title to immovable property at 1234 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70116."
    },
    {
      "action": "scanned",
      "custodian": "Litigation Support",
      "timestamp": "2025-06-20T10:00:00Z",
      "organization": "Dupont & Associates LLC",
      "notes": "Scanned from certified copy at 600 DPI, TIFF format."
    }
  ]
}

10. Validation

10.1 Base Validation

Louisiana containers are validated by the standard ADAC validator and all ADAC-Legal and ADAC-Legal-US validation rules. No additional validation error codes are defined by this specification.

10.2 Recommended Louisiana-Specific Application-Level Checks

11. References

11.1 Normative References

11.2 Informative References

12. Version History