Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:62.1

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • person: includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 1:10
  • Vital records registry: means a central registry as provided for in La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:32

A.  Where a child’s sex designation and consequently the child’s first or given name is erroneously recorded at the time of birth on an original birth certificate, the state registrar may prepare a new certificate with a proper sex designation and allow the child’s first or given name to be changed when the parent or parents of the child, or in the absence of a parent, the person legally responsible for the child, requests a new birth certificate and presents competent medical evidence in the form of affidavits from two or more physicians certifying and establishing by medical diagnosis that the original erroneous sex designation was due to a hereditary genetic defect or hormone deficiency, including but not limited to congenital adrenal hyperplasia or a related condition, and not due to sexual reassignment or major corrective surgery as contemplated in La. Rev. Stat. 40:62.  

B.  Upon the issuance of a new birth certificate, the child’s original birth certificate together with the affidavits and related evidence received by the state registrar shall be sealed in a package or envelope and filed in the archives of the vital records registry.  This sealed package or envelope shall be opened only upon the demand of a parent, or other person legally responsible for the child in the absence of a parent, or the individual registrant, after emancipation or reaching the age of majority, and then only by order of a court of competent jurisdiction in the parish wherein the vital records registry is legally domiciled.  

Added by Acts 1981, No. 657, §1.  Acts 1986, No. 876, §1.