Louisiana’s eviction process is being put on trial, with critics hoping to remove the financial incentive for low-level elected officials to rule on dozens of cases each week. Attorneys for a Baton Rouge woman facing eviction filed a lawsuit March 24 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. They take issue with how local justices of the peace can supplement their budgets and salaries through the fees they charge for adjudicating evictions. State law allows justices of the peace to charge defendants $120 for each eviction case they handle plus another $20 for each additional defendant. To execute the eviction, their courts receive $60 per case and another $20 per defendant. The organizations suing Steven Sanders, an East Baton Rouge Parish justice of the peace, say he handles 300 to 400 evictions a week. They want their case designated as a class action to bring more tenants on board as plaintiffs. As of now, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Housing Law Project and New Orleans civil rights attorney William Quigley represent just one tenant: Latoria George, who currently faces eviction in Sanders’ court. Anjana Joshi, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney representing George, sat in on other eviction cases Sanders handled to track his pace. “He will often schedule [multiple] evictions filed by the same landlord for the same morning … and those will all be decided kind of in rapid succession,” Joshi said. “What we observed was that often tenants don’t show up, so there’s a default judgment that Justice of the Peace Sanders signs,” she said. “Sometimes tenants do show up, and he may try to work out a payment plan with them. But when he does that, he still issues a judgment of eviction against them.” Sanders moved through cases without tenants in seconds, according to Joshi. When tenants did appear, “It could take, like, up to a couple minutes.” The seemingly expedited eviction process is at the heart of the lawsuit against Sanders, whose caseload generated nearly $2.7 million in court fee revenue between 2019-23 based on figures from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. The state attorney general’s office, which represents local justices of the peace in legal matters, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Reached by phone Monday, Sanders said he could not discuss the pending litigation under advisement from the attorney general. ‘A very, very lucrative business’ Sanders’ total court expenses averaged less than $20,000 annually over that same period, leaving ample revenue for him to tap into to augment his base salary of around $5,000 a year that the state allocates. Sanders’ take-home pay from 2019-23 averaged $232,419 a year, making him the highest paid justice of the peace in East Baton Rouge Parish according to reports filed with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. That places him well ahead of the average salaries for state district court judges ($173,788) and Louisiana Supreme Court justices ($193,227). “It’s a very, very lucrative business,” said Hannah Adams, a plaintiff’s attorney with the National Housing Law Project. Sanders is not alone among Louisiana justices of the peace who churn out a high rate of evictions and see a corresponding increase in personal compensation. Three justices of the peace in Jefferson Parish were featured in a WDSU-TV report on their court revenue-boosted salaries. Kevin Centannipresided over 60 eviction cases in his Kenner district during one week in February. In 2023, he reported a total salary of $147,637, with $115,000 coming from fees. Vernon Wilty III, who presides over a West Jefferson justice of the peace court, added $202,543 in fees to his base pay of $24,134. Charles “Chuck” Cusimano IIof Metairie reported his salary was $21,600 with an additional $327,588 in fee income .   “If Judge Sanders or any of the other justices of the peace are dependent on the money that landlords pay them to file evictions, they have a financial incentive to get as many landlords as possible to file evictions,” Adams said. “And even more insidious, they have potentially a financial incentive to grant as many evictions as possible, because they get an extra $40 or so every time they grant an eviction.” Landlords’ preferred venue   There are nearly 400 elected justices of the peace in Louisiana. In addition to evictions, state law allows them to preside over auto repossessions, small claims cases and marriages. They don’t have to be lawyers, and their “courtrooms” can be based out of home offices and other nondescript places. Instead of going before a justice of the peace, landlords can file eviction cases with city or state district courts. But the plaintiff’s attorneys say justices of the peace are their preferred venue because they don’t have to follow evidence rules. For example, a landlord could testify that a tenant is being evicted for excessive noise based on a neighbor’s complaints. A justice of the peace could accept the landlord’s word as fact, while the neighbor would be required to testify in district court. Also, a tenant’s ability to appeal a ruling from a justice of the peace is limited. State district court decisions can be challenged all the way up to the Louisiana Supreme Court. But if an evicted tenant wants to appeal a justice of the peace ruling, they essentially have to start a new trial in district court because there are no records to review from the justice of peace. Plus, the district court’s ruling is final. “The financial conflicts of interest that [are inherent] in justice of the peace courts and the unequal access to appellate rights granted to tenants in justice of the peace courts create a two-tiered system of justice in Louisiana,” the plaintiff’s attorneys argue in the lawsuit. Due process and funding concerns George’s legal team is leaning on two precedents in which the U.S. 5th Circuit ruled courts violated the constitutional right to due process when they funded their operations with fees and fines assessed against criminal defendants. In one case, appellate judges ruled against Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell, who was running his court on non-reimburseable fees collected from bail bond businesses. The plaintiff’s attorney noted Cantrell frequently steered defendants to bondsmen, rather than accept cash. The judge also routinely set high bonds and advised accused parties not to seek lower ones, according to court records. The other case found Orleans Parish Criminal District Court collected fines and fees from defendants for its Judicial Expense Fund. The 5th Circuit ruled the system violated defendants’ due process rights and presented a conflict of interest under the 14th Amendment. It would take a change in Louisiana law to keep justices of the peace from dipping into their revenue accounts to pump up their salaries. State Rep. Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Houma, has been the most outspoken among lawmakers on the topic of judicial compensation. He has also been a critic of courts that rely on revenue that’s self-generated through punitive measures. “This speaks to the issue of how we fund the judicial process in Louisiana,” Zeringue said in an interview. “We need to get away from focusing on fines and fees to fund the essential parts of the judicial system.” Steven Procopio, head of the nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, notes that any changes to the laws that dictate what fees justices of the peace collect could have a ripple effect on state resources. Denying access to the fees for salaries might also impact how these low-level courts pay for their operating costs. “To address it though, it means you have to find other sources of revenue that aren’t fee-based. That usually means state funding,” Procopio said. ...read more read less