Provides for the territorial jurisdiction of the Jeanerette City Court. (8/1/26) (OR SEE FISC NOTE LF)

Senate Bill 179 enacts a new statutory provision at Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:1952.2 that establishes the territorial jurisdiction of the Jeanerette City Court. The legislation specifies that the city court's jurisdiction extends throughout eight designated precincts in Iberia Parish, including Precincts 10-1, 10-4, 11-6, 12-1, 12-2, 12-3, 12-4, and the portion of Precinct 11-1 west of the shoreline of Lake Fausse Point. For those portions of these precincts that lie outside the corporate limits of the city of Jeanerette, the bill creates concurrent jurisdiction between the Jeanerette City Court and the justice of the peace, with the city court sharing authority in cases where the justice of the peace would ordinarily have jurisdiction.

The practical effect of this legislation is to expand the geographic reach of the Jeanerette City Court beyond the city's municipal boundaries into unincorporated areas of Iberia Parish while preserving the justice of the peace's traditional role in those same territories. Residents and businesses located in the specified precincts outside the city limits may now bring civil cases in either the Jeanerette City Court or the justice of the peace court, providing litigants with an additional forum option. The justice of the peace retains full authority to hear cases within these precincts and is not displaced by the city court's expansion, but now operates under an arrangement of shared jurisdiction rather than exclusive jurisdiction.

This statute operates within the framework of Louisiana's city court system, which is governed by Title 13 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes and derives its authority from the Louisiana Constitution. City courts are limited-jurisdiction courts of record that typically have territorial boundaries tied to the municipality they serve. By explicitly expanding the Jeanerette City Court's jurisdiction into parish precincts outside city limits, the statute modifies the typical geographic constraint while preserving the concurrent authority of justice of the peace courts, which are established under Louisiana law as the primary forum for minor civil disputes and certain criminal matters in unincorporated areas.