Legal Corner: How to request documents on the I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge project

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Legal Corner answers viewers’ civil legal questions.

QUESTION: My small business is an LLC, and I just realized that I have not filed my annual report in over a year. Will the Secretary of State’s (“SOS”) office revoke my articles? If they are revoked, can they be reinstated, or are they forever revoked?

ANSWER:

La.R.S. 12:262.1(A) provides:

A. Where a corporation has failed to designate and maintain a registered office and to designate and maintain a registered agent pursuant to the provisions of R.S. 12:236, for a period of one hundred eighty consecutive days, or where a corporation has failed to file an annual report for three consecutive years, according to the records of the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall revoke the articles of incorporation and franchise of such corporation.

La.R.S. 12:262.1(E)(1) provides, in pertinent parts:

E. (1) The certificate of incorporation and articles of incorporation shall be reinstated upon the filing, with the secretary of state and within three years from the effective date of the revocation, of an application of reinstatement, signed and acknowledged by an officer of the corporation, accompanied by a reinstatement fee and a current annual report. The secretary of state may prescribe and furnish forms for the reinstatement and annual report…

The reinstatement fee is $75.00, and there is a required $30.00 payment for each annual report that was not filed between the last filed report and the reinstatement.

QUESTION: I have several questions about the new I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge project, especially about construction costs and contracts involved. What would be a good way of getting information and documents about it?

ANSWER: To review or obtain the requested information and/or documents from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (“DOTD”), which is overseeing the project, one must first make a request to the custodian of the documents in question.

The most efficient way to make a public record request to DOTD is to submit the public records request form through the following:

1) Email address (dotdpublicrecords@la.gov);

2) Fax number (225-242-4690); or

3) U.S. First Class Mail

(DOTD Custodian of Records, HQ – EW 3rd Floor, P.O. Box 94245, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9245)