Louisiana’s district courts are general jurisdiction courts functioning at the trial level of the federal court system. They use a jury to handle both civil and criminal trials (Graphia, 2019). Louisiana’s district courts have unrestricted jurisdiction of a trial court within their geographical limit, a parish, which corresponds to a county in other states (“Court structure,” n.d.). This paper aims to discuss the role, structure, and jurisdiction of district courts in Louisiana.
Role and Structure of District Courts
District courts make decisions regarding legal or crime arguments by applying authorized principles and establishing facts. Trial courts involve district judges trying the case, juries deciding the case, and magistrate judges assisting in preparing cases before trials or, in some instances, deciding civil or criminal trials instead of a district judge. Outside of Orleans Parish, there are 63 parishes in Louisiana. Thus, the state has 40 judicial districts, with each containing one to three parishes and two districts covering Orleans Parish (“Court structure,” n.d.). District judges are elected for a period of six years, and there are 170 of them outside of Orleans, while the Orleans district court is split into criminal and civil district courts (“Court structure,” n.d.). The criminal trial court involves ten judges and a magistrate judge, and the civil trial court includes 14 judges, with all of them elected to a term of six years (“Court structure,” n.d.). Overall, there are 42 district courts in the state of Louisiana (Graphia, 2019). They execute jurisdiction of criminal cases as well as most cases regarding the property.
Original Jurisdiction
In Louisiana, district courts have jurisdiction within their geographical limits covering all matters. However, according to Louisiana State Bar Association’s data, Orleans and “the 1st, 19th, and 24th judicial districts” constitute an exception to the rule (“Court structure,” n.d., District Courts section, para. 2). In these regions, juvenile and family courts’ exclusive jurisdiction prevails in some instances. Moreover, traffic and municipal courts handle trials regarding violations of municipal ordinances in Orleans Parish.
Concurrent jurisdiction refers to a process when two or more courts that belong to different systems have jurisdiction over a particular case at the same time. In Louisiana’s court system, district courts’ concurrent jurisdiction in civil cases “would extend up to $2,000 in wards where justices of the peace are in operation” (“Court structure,” n.d., District Courts section, para. 2). Similarly, the concurrent jurisdiction of district courts would range “from $5,000 to $25,000 when their territorial jurisdiction is concurrent with that of a city court” (“Court structure,” n.d., District Courts section, para. 2). Moreover, misdemeanor and juvenile cases are tried with the application of concurrent jurisdiction if no separate juvenile court is present.
Appellate and Supervisory Jurisdiction
Louisiana’s district courts have appellate jurisdiction over criminal proceedings held by municipal, city, mayor, traffic, and justice of the peace courts handling traffic violations and misdemeanor cases, if no parish court exists. Cases tried under a state statute in municipal, parish, or city courts constitute an exception to this rule, and claims are appealed to the court of appeal (Graphia, 2019). Criminal District Court in Orleans Parish has supervisory jurisdiction over the municipal and traffic courts.
To summarize, Louisiana’s district courts serve at least one parish and elect judges for six-year terms. There is a total of 42 district courts in the state, executing jurisdiction of criminal and property-related cases. Besides, they are characterized by original jurisdiction over all criminal and civil matters, as well as appellate jurisdiction over criminal proceedings under certain circumstances. Orleans Parish has separate civil and criminal district courts, and the latter has supervisory jurisdiction over municipal and traffic courts.
References
Court structure. (n.d.). Web.
Graphia, N. M. (2019). Louisiana code of criminal procedure. Gulf Coast Legal Publishing.