The Louisiana military affidavit

How Louisiana handles it

Louisiana has no statewide military affidavit and no rule that requires one by name. Code of Civil Procedure article 1702, the default judgment article, was read in full on August 15, 2026: it governs prima facie proof, the seven-day notice of intent to take a default, affidavits of correctness on an open account or a promissory note, and the seventy-two hour window for the judge to sign or set a hearing. It never mentions military service. The Rules for Louisiana District Courts do not either. The requirement is enforced court by court, which is why the document you need comes from the court you are filing in.

In New Orleans the Civil District Court publishes the City Court paperwork, and two of those forms carry the military statement. One is the standalone Affidavit of Non-Military Service. The other is the Affidavit of Correctness of Account and/or Note and Non-Military Service, a combined document for suits on an open account, a promissory note, or a security agreement. The combined one is doing double duty: it is the article 1702(B) affidavit that makes the debt self-authenticating prima facie proof, with the military sentence folded in at the bottom, and it cites La. R.S. 13:3733 for the business records it attaches.

The wording is unusually old. The standalone affidavit says the defendant "is not in the military services of the United States of America or its allies," a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act era phrase that has survived on the form. There is no is-serving option, no unable-to-determine option, no reference to the Defense Manpower Data Center, and no place to attach a status report. The combined version softens it to "to the best of Affiant’s information, knowledge and belief," which is a different standard from the necessary facts that 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(1)(A) asks for.

Louisiana also runs a separate mechanism that people confuse with the SCRA. Code of Civil Procedure article 5091 requires the court, on the plaintiff’s petition or ex parte written motion, to appoint an attorney at law to represent a defendant who is a nonresident or absentee never served with process, and article 5091(B) makes all proceedings against that defendant run contradictorily against the appointed lawyer. Article 5091(C) says calling that appointee a curator ad hoc, which is what Louisiana practitioners call the job, does not affect the validity of the proceeding. That appointment turns on service, not on uniform. The appointed counsel a servicemember gets under section 3931(b)(2) is a different appointment for a different reason, and a curator ad hoc appointment does not satisfy it.

Louisiana then adds its own enforcement layer. R.S. 29:422, read on the state legislature site on August 15, 2026, adopts the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and USERRA as part of the Louisiana Military Service Relief Act, gives the district courts of the state jurisdiction over SCRA proceedings under the rules for ordinary proceedings, requires district and appellate courts to give scheduling preference on the motion of a person in the uniformed services who certifies their service, and lets the Attorney General of Louisiana file suit to enforce the Part.

What trips filers up here

• The file name on the Civil District Court site is misspelled, Afdfidavit-of-Non-Military-Service.pdf. The link works, but search for the form by its section on the forms page, under City Court Forms, rather than by guessing the URL.
• The standalone affidavit gives you one option and it is the false one if the defendant is serving. If your DMDC search comes back active duty, or comes back empty on a defendant you have reason to think is a Guard member, do not sign this form. File a statement of what you found and let the court appoint counsel.
• In an open account or promissory note suit, the combined Affidavit of Correctness of Account and/or Note and Non-Military Service is the one to use. Filing the standalone military affidavit alone leaves the article 1702(B) proof requirement unmet, and the clerk will not sign anything without it.
• These are Orleans Parish forms. Louisiana has forty-two judicial districts plus city and parish courts with their own rules, so a form that clears First City Court is a starting draft anywhere else, not a filing.

Signing it: notarization required

The plaintiff personally appears before "the undersigned authority," is duly sworn, and deposes. The block underneath asks the notary for a signature, a printed name, a bar number or notary number, and a commission expiration date, so a Louisiana attorney notary can take it.

This form carries a notary block, so budget for a notary before your filing date. Federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling: 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) permits an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, but a state is free to require more on its own form, and this one does.

Louisiana law on top of the federal rule

La. R.S. 29:422: Louisiana adopts the SCRA and USERRA as state law and makes their benefits, protections, and rights applicable to everyone called to service in the uniformed services as defined in R.S. 29:403. The section gives Louisiana district courts jurisdiction over SCRA proceedings, requires district and appellate courts to give scheduling preference to a servicemember who certifies their service, and authorizes the Attorney General to sue to enforce it (read August 2026).

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Louisiana and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Louisiana SCRA benefits.