Legislative continuances are an extraordinary privilege for attorney/legislators and allow them to disrupt the entire judicial system to accommodate their legislative responsibilities.
Family court matters should be totally exempt from these continuances. This privilege has already been abused to delay protective order hearings and to separate a parent from a child following an unfounded allegation of mental instability or substance abuse. A clean and stable parent ordered to have drug tests or a mental health evaluation can continue to be denied visitation with a child if a subsequent hearing falls within a legislative session or 30 days before and after the session.
A legislator can request the continuance even if another attorney can capably handle the case, and a vindictive and connected parent or spouse need only retain a legislator as attorney to avoid court appearances and legal deadlines. At a minimum, a legislator who seeks a continuance should have to attest that there is no other attorney who could possibly handle the legal matter at issue or meet a legal deadline and should have to decline a case that creates a conflict, like all other attorneys.
Other legislators have no such “gift” to accommodate their own professional obligations. Legislators who are physicians, small business owners or solo practitioners do not have the luxury of disrupting the entire judicial system, which exists to serve the public at large. House Bill 544 makes the problem worse, mandating judicial recusal and attorney sanctions if a continuance is denied or opposed.
Public service is a choice, and a law which makes it easier for one, and only one, specific group of legislators to do their regular jobs should not come at the expense of Louisiana citizens — particularly families embroiled in legal matters.
KIM SPORT
past chair, Louisiana Commission to Prevent Domestic Violence
New Orleans
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