HLS 24RS-1062 ORIGINAL
2024 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 60
BY REPRESENTATIVE JORDAN
COURTS/MAYORS: Requests a study of the feasibility and practicality of mayor's courts
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To authorize and request the House Committee on Judiciary and the Senate Committee on
3 Judiciary B to meet and to function as a joint legislative committee to study and
4 make recommendations with respect to the feasibility and practicality of mayor's
5 courts and to report the findings of the joint committee to the legislature prior to the
6 convening of the 2025 Regular Session of the Legislature of Louisiana.
7 WHEREAS, the mayor's courts of Louisiana have jurisdiction over violations of
8municipal ordinances and may impose fines, imprisonment, probation, and court costs as
9authorized in such ordinances; and
10 WHEREAS, a mayor's court jurisdiction is concurrent with the courts of record,
11which have such jurisdiction; and
12 WHEREAS, a mayor's court may conduct trials, issue peace bonds, warrants,
13subpoenas, and summons, fix bail in criminal cases, and collect utility debts within the
14municipality when the amount in dispute does not exceed five thousand dollars; and
15 WHEREAS, mayor's courts exist in most municipalities, except where a city court
16has been established; and
17 WHEREAS, in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that having a mayor serve as
18judge is unfair to defendants if a town brings in a substantial part of its revenue through the
19court and if the mayor is responsible for the town’s finances; and
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HCR NO. 60
1 WHEREAS, the Louisiana Judicial College advises towns with a mayor’s court to
2appoint someone other than the mayor to act as judge if court collections account for at least
3ten percent of their overall revenue; and
4 WHEREAS, in 2022, of the three hundred one municipalities and two combined
5city-parish governments required to file audits, ninety-one of the municipalities with a
6mayor's court collected ten percent or more of their revenue through fines and forfeitures in
7a single year.
8 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
9authorize and request the House Committee on Judiciary and the Senate Committee on
10Judiciary B to meet and function as a joint legislative committee to study the feasibility and
11practicality of mayor's courts and to report the findings of the joint committee to the
12legislature prior to the convening of the 2025 Regular Session of the Legislature of
13Louisiana.
14 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that one print copy and one electronic copy of any
15report produced pursuant to this Resolution to the David R. Poynter Legislative Research
16Library as required by R.S. 24:772.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 60 Original 2024 Regular Session Jordan
Requests a study of the feasibility and practicality of mayor's courts.
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