Art. 257.Neglect, Failure, Or Refusal of Clerk, Deputy, Or Other Employee to Perform Duty Subjects Him to Punishment For Contempt

Many of a clerk's duties leave no room for judgment calls: file the pleading, issue the certified copy, enter the minutes. Article 257 calls these ministerial duties — acts the law requires regardless of discretion — and backs them with a real consequence.

A clerk, deputy clerk, or other employee of the clerk's office who neglects a ministerial duty, fails to carry it out, or refuses to do it can be punished for contempt of court. The rule reaches the whole office, not just the clerk personally, since deputies and staff perform much of the day-to-day work under Article 255.

The contempt remedy backstops the duties spelled out elsewhere in this chapter — filing pleadings promptly, issuing certified copies, keeping the docket and minute books — by giving a party a way to force compliance when a clerk's office won't do what the law requires.