This section sets pawnshop license application requirements, annual and application fees, late-payment consequences, and a limited hearing/review process.
§1786. Application; fees; bond A. An application for a new pawnshop license or the approval of a change in the ownership of an existing licensed pawnshop shall be made under oath and state the applicant's full name, the applicant's place of residence, the place where business is to be conducted, and other relevant information required by the commissioner. If the applicant is a juridical person, the application shall state the full name and address of each operator, partner, officer, and director of the juridical person and owner or beneficial owner of at least twenty-five percent of the juridical person. B. If the applicant does not possess a pawnshop license, the application shall be accompanied by a license fee of seven hundred fifty dollars to be paid to the commissioner. If the applicant possesses at least one valid unsuspended pawnshop license and is applying for an additional license to operate at another location, the application shall be accompanied by a fee of five hundred dollars. C. Every licensee, on or before December thirty-first of every year, shall pay to the commissioner four hundred fifty dollars for each license as the annual fee for the succeeding year. If the annual fee is not received by the commissioner on or before December thirty-first, the licensee shall be assessed an additional one hundred fifty dollars as a late payment penalty. If the annual fee and late payment penalty are not received by the commissioner before March first of the following year, the license shall expire. D. When an application and the fees required by Subsection B of this Section are received, the commissioner shall investigate the facts as required by R.S. 37:1787. If the eligibility requirements for a license are satisfied, the commissioner shall approve an application. If the eligibility requirements for a license are not satisfied, or if for any other reason the license has not been issued, the commissioner shall notify the applicant who shall within sixty days of written request be entitled to a hearing on such application pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act. All final decisions of the commissioner shall be subject to judicial review by the district court of East Baton Rouge Parish. The right to a hearing pursuant to this Subsection and judicial review thereof shall not limit the scope of judicial review or other means of review, redress, relief, or trial de novo otherwise provided to the parties by law. E. Any applicant who owns a pawnshop that was licensed and doing business in this state for at least one year immediately prior to September 1, 1993, shall be entitled to receive one or more licenses by applying to the commissioner no later than September 1, 1993, and the payment of the fees required by Subsection B of this Section without the commissioner performing any further investigation of facts. When an applicant owns more than one pawnshop and at least one has been licensed and doing business for more than one year, all of the applicant's pawnshops licensed and operating at the time of enacting this Part* shall be eligible for a license pursuant to this Subsection. F. Any person required to be licensed by this Chapter shall pay all applicable fees to utilize any electronic database licensing system as described in R.S. 6:121.8. Acts 1993, No. 391, §1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993; Acts 1995, No. 1062, §1, eff. June 29, 1995; Acts 1999, No. 883, §1; Acts 2012, No. 220, §3, eff. May 22, 2012; Acts 2015, No. 208, §1. *As appears in enrolled bill.