Short answer. Yes, in principle. Article 411 of the Civil Code makes every civil registrar civilly responsible for any unauthorized alteration in a civil register, to any person who suffers damage from it. But the article gives him a way out: he escapes liability by proving he took every reasonable precaution to prevent the unlawful alteration.
What the law says
Every civil registrar shall be civilly responsible for any unauthorized alteration made in any civil register, to any person suffering damage thereby.
Civil Code, Article 411 — Registrar’s Liability for Alterations. Read the full provision →
What the law says
the civil registrar may exempt himself from such liability if he proves that he has taken every reasonable precaution to prevent the unlawful alteration
Civil Code, Article 411 — Registrar’s Liability for Alterations. Read the full provision →
The liability is civil, and it is about damage
Article 411 creates a claim for damages, not a criminal charge and not a route to fixing the record. It answers one question: who compensates the person harmed when an entry in the civil register was changed without authority. So the complainant must show real injury flowing from the alteration — a passport refused, an inheritance claim thrown into doubt, a marriage licence delayed, a benefit withheld, the cost of the proceedings needed to sort it out. Distress alone with no consequence is a thin case. Notice also the phrase unauthorized alteration. A change made through the proper legal channel is not within this article, however unwelcome the result may be to someone.
The defence of reasonable precaution
The second sentence matters as much as the first. The registrar may exempt himself by proving that he has taken every reasonable precaution to prevent the unlawful alteration. This is a demanding standard but not an impossible one, and it means the article does not make the registrar an automatic insurer against every act of forgery by an outsider or a subordinate. It also tells you where such a case is actually fought: over office systems. Who had access to the books, how records were kept and secured, whether supporting documents were checked, whether irregularities were reported — these are the facts that decide it, and the burden of establishing them rests on the registrar.
Fixing the record is a separate exercise
Suing for damages does not restore your birth certificate to what it should say. Correcting the register is done through its own machinery: clerical or typographical slips and certain first-name and sex or date-of-birth entries are handled administratively before the local civil registry, while substantial changes — those affecting status, filiation, nationality or legitimacy — require a court proceeding with the registrar and the affected parties impleaded. Most people who discover a wrong entry need that route first. The claim under this article, if any, comes afterwards and is aimed at recovering what the mistake cost you. Note too that an altered entry may itself be a falsification offence for whoever made it.
If you have found a changed entry
Get a certified copy of the current record and, if you can, of an earlier issuance showing the entry as it originally stood — the comparison is the backbone of any claim. Request the supporting documents on file, since an unauthorized change often leaves a paper trail of an application that was never properly made. Write to the local civil registry setting out what is wrong and keep the reply. Be aware that actions for damages are subject to prescriptive periods, and that suing a public officer can involve procedural requirements a private claim does not. No outcome can be promised. Take advice on correction and on any damages claim together, in that order.