Most lost real-estate records restored in Orleans Parish Clerk's office

Orleans Parish Clerk Dale Atkins announced that the amount of real estate documents lost was much less than originally believed and that most of the records have been restored.

Atkins released a statement saying, "the total number of instruments needing to be restored is approximately 35,000, much less than our original estimate of 60,000." Atkins said that 29,542 conveyance records have been restored.

A computer glitch in the Orleans Parish Civil District Court system caused the loss of thousands of real estate records dating back to the 1980s. The loss of the data had caused real estate deals to come to a halt while the records were being restored.

While many of the conveyance records have been restored, there are still some 100,000 mortgage records that have not been recovered. Real estate agents need both in order to make sure property titles are properly cleared.

The October crash revealed several vulnerabilities in the Orleans Parish computer system. While Atkins is the custodian of the records. The Civil District Court – a separate entity - runs the computer system that indexes the paper record.

A report in the Times-Picayune cites emails between the Civil District Court and its technology vendor which points out that the court's server "is in its end of life which means it is no longer under warranty and also the reason why the server is no longer in production."