Orleans Parish Clerk states all mortgage records recovered

All the Orleans Parish mortgage and conveyance records lost in a computer crash in October 2010 have been recovered, according to Clerk of Court Dale Atkins.

The total costs of recovering the files - including overtime, extra staffing and outside contractors - exceeded $300,000.

In an interview with The Record/i> in January 2010, Orleans Parish Civil Judge Kern Reese said that cutting the court's technology staff was one of the main contributing factors to an October computer crash, which resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of real estate records.

That loss crippled real estate transactions in Orleans Parish.

After the computer crash, 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 were restored by mid-December 2010.

A total of 58 people - including four from the Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court's office, six from the Orleans Sheriff's office and 44 existing employees in the Orleans Clerk's office – were commissioned to restore the information.

Tynia Landry had served as the Orleans Parish system administrator for nearly a decade before the crash and was later replaced by consultant Peter Haas. At the time of the replacement, court spokesman Walt Pierce did not confirm whether or not Landry had been fired, only saying that she was no longer at her post.