Orleans Parish operates with 31 judges to handle approximately 15,759 total cases. East Baton Rouge handles more than 23,000 cases with 15 judges. Jefferson Parish manages nearly 18,000 cases with 16 judges. Districts across this state are doing more — handling both civil and criminal matters, carrying heavier caseloads, running leaner operations — and closing cases faster. Orleans, with fewer cases and way more judges, still averages 369 days to close a case. Jefferson does it in 334. St. Tammany in 273.
Two separate bills brought by state Sen. Jay Morris and state Rep. Dixon McMakin call for the consolidation of the courts and reducing Orleans civil judges from 14 to 10, criminal judges from 12 to nine and juvenile judges from four to two. These reductions are not radical. They are the bare minimum required to bring the Orleans court system into alignment with the rest of Louisiana.
The push to correct the courts in New Orleans isn’t new. A bill to consolidate the courts was originally brought in the 80s by Rep. Garey Forster and in 2006 by Rep. Peppi Bruneau. A bill to reduce the number of judges was brought by then-Rep. Helena Moreno in 2013…