Those people whose names are on outstanding warrants held by the New Iberia City Marshal’s Office have the opportunity to clear up the warrant issues with the marshal’s office before Sunday’s publication of a list of warrants in The Daily Iberian.

The Daily Iberian and the New Iberia City Marshal’s Office are collaborating to publish outstanding warrants in the newspaper starting Sunday, but newly-elected City Marshal Dickie Fremin said that those who clear up the warrants before Friday will not have their names published. Those who wish to clear the warrants should call the City Marshal’s office at 337-369-2332.

“The overall number of outstanding warrants is a community problem,” Daily Iberian Publisher Michael Messerly said. “The Daily Iberian is a longstanding member of this community which explains our involvement.

“It is the Marshal’s Office’s responsibility to bring people to resolve cases before the court. It is also a citizen’s duty to finish their business with the court. Working together, The Daily Iberian and the marshal are providing an innovative and efficient way to clear the massive backlog of outstanding court cases. We all need our courts to run effectively, we can’t do that with more than two thousand unresolved court cases.”

Fremin said that the backlog of warrants the Marshal’s Office deals with is significant, and those who see their names in the newspaper can call his office to deal with the issue by getting on a payment plan or some other option.

Messerly said that as the paper of record in Iberia Parish and the city of New Iberia, one of the roles he wants the newspaper to take is role in addressing problems in the community and helping to clear the massive backlog of outstanding warrants is one such role.

Those who see their names on the list should contact the Marshal’s Office.

“They need to do right by the community and contact the City Marshal’s Office, and only the Marshal’s office, and settle their business with the court,” Messerly said. “It is time this problem be aggressively addressed and The Daily Iberian is stepping up to help make that happen. Not doing so will cost each person eventually if left unaddressed.”