Nothing is more important to me than your health and safety.  Since Thursday, both you and I have awaited decisions from the Caddo Parish judges as to how our courts would proceed. Yesterday, the District Court judges and Juvenile Court judges separately made decisions on how to respond to the current health crisis, in a nutshell both suspending non-emergent hearings until further notice.  
 
As your District Attorney, I and my staff are continuing to work and our offices are open for work. However, in an effort to do our part in curtailing the spread of the Coronavirus, we will be instituting the following policies:
 
 
District Court
· The District Court judges have decided to postpone any court hearings until further notice. Any defendants will receive their new court date and time through the mail.  Defendants should contact their attorney with any questions. The Caddo Parish Clerk’s office is open and can answer telephone inquiries at (318)226-6780. Any inquires to our office can be made via telephone (318)226-6826 or 6827  from 8:30am- 4:30pm. Email inquiries can be made to da@caddoda.com.
 
Child Support
· Effective immediately and until further notice, please complete and submit any child support applications through the on-line process at  www.dcfs.louisiana.gov.  
· Please call our office between the hours of 8am to 4 pm at (318)226-6871 if you have any inquiries regarding child support or child support hearing dates.   
 
Juvenile Court
· The Juvenile Court judges have decided to postpone any non-emergent hearings until further notice. Litigants will receive a notice of their new court date and time. However, if you need a protective order, they are still available at Juvenile Court. And child protection cases will be heard as usual. Please call the Juvenile Court clerk’s office with any questions from 8am-4:30pm at (318)226-6751. Please report child abuse to 1-855-4LA-KIDS.
 
Pre-trial Diversion
· We will not be allowing walk-ins to meet with staff in an effort to limit face-to-face contact. Please email our pre-trial diversion office at cdiversion@caddoda.com  or call our pre-trial diversion office at (318)226-5915 from 8:30am- 4:30pm with any questions regarding pre-trial diversion.
 
Worthless Checks
· If you are a victim of a worthless check, you will find our procedure to make your complaint at www.caddoda.com under the “hot check division” tab.  You can mail the worthless check to us when you follow that procedure to limit face-to-face contact.
· If you are a worthless check defendant, please mail in your payments to the Caddo Parish District Attorney, at 525 Marshall St., Suite 203, Shreveport, LA 71101 instead of delivering them to the office.  
· If you are a worthless check defendant, you may pay your amount in full over the telephone with a credit card.  Please call (318) 226-6556 for further information.   
 
These are certainly unique times. Please adhere to the Governor’s orders and to common sense social distancing while the Center for Disease Control tries to get a handle on the spread of this virus. I do apologize for any inconvenience, but by us all doing our part together we can help stop the spread of this virus. We must protect the most vulnerable of our population, and compliance and patience during this time will go a long way to getting our lives back to normal.
 
Please remember Psalm 46 (King James Version):
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
 
As always I remain at your service,
 
James E. Stewart, Sr.
Caddo Parish District Attorney