How do I determine the owner of a company in Louisiana? Is it the registered agent?

Question

I paid for flight lessons in full prior to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Subsequently, the flight instructor left town with acknowledgement that the company owes me approximately $2,000. Since November, I have not had any response from the flight instructor. The company I wrote the check out to still exists according to Louisiana's corporation database, and I know the registered agent. I would like to go to small claims court to receive my remaining balance. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The registered agent is the person designated for receiving service of lawsuits and other court processes. It could be an owner or is usually an attorney that filed the incorporation papers.

If your intent is to file a lawsuit, the registered agent is the only person you need to serve but you may want to sue the owners individually and you could either list them as unknown if you don't know there names or use the term "et. als". If would look like this:

Your name vs. Katrina Flight school, et als

Then when you discover their names you amend your suit and have them served as well if you can find where they're at.

Answer 2

the registered agent does not have to be the owner; only a point of contact in the corporation's state. the owner could live in another state. try the BBB first. any corporation should have its FEIN listed on the secretary of state website also. that's the way to track down the owner.