ENROLLED
2024 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 60
BY REPRESENTATIVE JORDAN
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To authorize and request the House Committee on Judiciary and the Senate Committee on
Judiciary B to meet and to function as a joint legislative committee to study and
make recommendations with respect to the feasibility and practicality of mayor's
courts and to report the findings of the joint committee to the legislature prior to the
convening of the 2025 Regular Session of the Legislature of Louisiana.
WHEREAS, the mayor's courts of Louisiana have jurisdiction over violations of
municipal ordinances and may impose fines, imprisonment, probation, and court costs as
authorized in such ordinances; and
WHEREAS, a mayor's court jurisdiction is concurrent with the courts of record,
which have such jurisdiction; and
WHEREAS, a mayor's court may conduct trials, issue peace bonds, warrants,
subpoenas, and summons, fix bail in criminal cases, and collect utility debts within the
municipality when the amount in dispute does not exceed five thousand dollars; and
WHEREAS, mayor's courts exist in most municipalities, except where a city court
has been established; and
WHEREAS, in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that having a mayor serve as
judge is unfair to defendants if a town brings in a substantial part of its revenue through the
court and if the mayor is responsible for the town’s finances; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Judicial College advises towns with a mayor’s court to
appoint someone other than the mayor to act as judge if court collections account for at least
ten percent of their overall revenue; and
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WHEREAS, in 2022, of the three hundred one municipalities and two combined
city-parish governments required to file audits, ninety-one of the municipalities with a
mayor's court collected ten percent or more of their revenue through fines and forfeitures in
a single year.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
authorize and request the House Committee on Judiciary and the Senate Committee on
Judiciary B to meet and function as a joint legislative committee to study the feasibility and
practicality of mayor's courts and to report the findings of the joint committee to the
legislature prior to the convening of the 2025 Regular Session of the Legislature of
Louisiana.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that one print copy and one electronic copy of any
report produced pursuant to this Resolution to the David R. Poynter Legislative Research
Library as required by R.S. 24:772.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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