---
urn: urn:us-la:rs:40:34
citation: "R.S. 40:34"
status: active
breadcrumb: "Title 40 › Chapter 2 › Part I"
acts_citations:
  - { year: 1979, number: 776, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: enactment }
  - { year: 1983, number: 624, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1986, number: 621, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1986, number: 876, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1987, number: 343, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1987, number: 360, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1989, number: 819, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1990, number: 238, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1990, number: 349, section: 1, effective_date: 1990-10-01, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1991, number: 688, section: 1, effective_date: 1991-07-18, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1991, number: 820, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1993, number: 740, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1993, number: 775, section: 1, effective_date: 1994-08-15, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1995, number: 954, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1997, number: 1252, section: 1, effective_date: 1997-07-15, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1998, number: 8, section: 4, effective_date: 1998-04-24, role: amendment }
  - { year: 1999, number: 834, section: 1, effective_date: 1999-07-02, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2000, number: 136, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2001, number: 690, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2001, number: 1118, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2003, number: 1239, section: 1, effective_date: 2003-07-07, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2003, number: 1251, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2004, number: 26, section: 13, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2006, number: 344, section: 5, effective_date: 2006-06-13, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2006, number: 377, section: 1, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2008, number: 561, section: 2, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2008, number: 561, section: 3, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2012, number: 255, section: 6, effective_date: null, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2018, number: 672, section: 1, effective_date: 2019-01-01, role: amendment }
  - { year: 2019, number: 423, section: 1, effective_date: 2019-06-20, role: amendment }
---

# Vital records forms

A.(1) The certificate forms prescribed by the state registrar shall include, as a minimum, birth certificates, death certificates, paternity acknowledgment affidavits, and any other forms recommended by the national office in charge of gathering vital statistics. Only these forms shall be used in registering, recording, and preserving the vital information required by this Chapter. These forms shall be typewritten in black type or written in jet black ink or transferred by electronic means. Additionally each certificate of a birth occurring in a licensed hospital shall be typewritten in black type or computer generated. Whenever a form is changed, the new form shall be furnished to the person charged with preparing it not less than thirty days prior to the date upon which the form shall be required to be used.

(2) The Louisiana Department of Health shall promulgate rules and regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act to allow electronic registration in lieu of typewritten or written birth, death, fetal death, marriage, and divorce certificates.

B. The forms shall be printed and supplied or provided by electronic means by the state registrar.

C.(1) Each coroner or physician who signs a death certificate shall certify the certificate using the Louisiana Electronic Event Registration System of the Louisiana Department of Health, state registrar of vital records.

(2) Each coroner shall report drug overdose deaths where the decedent's toxicology results indicate that an opioid was present at the time of death and related to the overdose. The reporting shall be entered into the Louisiana Electronic Event Registration System of the Louisiana Department of Health, state registrar of vital records.