THE JUVENILE COURT

§96. Establishment; jurisdiction; appeals; procedure; judges

           Section 96. Parish of Orleans--Jurisdiction--Appeals--Procedure--Judge--Salary and term of office. There shall be a Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans, which shall have jurisdiction, except for capital crimes and crimes defined by any law defining attempted aggravated rape committed by children fifteen years of age or older, of proceedings concerning neglected or delinquent children under seventeen years of age. The court shall also have jurisdiction of all cases of desertion or nonsupport of children by either parent, or of nonsupport of wives by their husbands and also of the adoption of children under seventeen years of age. Upon the effective date of this amendment the Juvenile Courts shall be divested of jurisdiction and trial of all persons charged with contributing to the neglect or delinquency of children under seventeen years of age, and all persons charged with the violation of any law now in existence or hereafter enacted for the protection of the physical, moral or mental well-being of children under seventeen years of age, not punishable by death or hard labor, the jurisdiction and trial of all persons so charged is hereby vested in the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans. All such cases, pending and undisposed of, and the records thereof upon the effective date of this amendment, shall be transferred, by order of a Juvenile Court judge to the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans for further proceedings in accordance with law, and such transfer shall be deemed perfected upon the signing of such order.

           Appeals shall lie to the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana from all final judgments rendered by the Juvenile Court. An appeal shall lie on questions of law and of fact when the judgment of the court affects the custody, care or control of children under seventeen years of age, but such appeal shall not discharge the child to whom said judgment relates from the custody of the Juvenile Court or of the person, institution or agency to whose care such child may be committed by the Juvenile Court, unless the Supreme Court shall so order. An appeal also shall lie on questions of law and of fact in adoption proceedings. In all other cases an appeal shall lie on questions of law alone.

           The Legislature shall have power to regulate the manner of conducting all proceedings in said Juvenile Court and appeals from all final judgments, and the number and duties of the officers thereof and all other matters pertaining thereto. Proceedings in the Juvenile Court concerning neglected or delinquent children under seventeen years of age are not required to be instituted by indictment, information or affidavit.

           The judges of the Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans shall try cases and consider all matters coming before said court. The legislature by a two-thirds vote of the membership of each house shall fix the salary and the number of judges of the Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans. The terms of office of said judges shall be eight years. The judges of the Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans shall be elected by the qualified electors of the Parish of Orleans. They shall be learned in the law and shall have practiced law in this state for not less than five years previous to their election and shall have resided in the Parish of Orleans for at least two years immediately preceding their election. The successors to the judges of said court at the time of the final adoption of this amendment to the Constitution shall be elected at the respective nearest Congressional elections preceding the expiration of the respective terms of office of such judges. Whenever a judge of the Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans is prevented from holding court for any cause whatever, and that fact is made to appear by a certificate from a judge of said Juvenile Court or Clerk of said Juvenile Court to the Supreme Court or any Justice thereof, the public interest so requiring, the Supreme Court, in its supervisory powers, may assign any district judge or appoint any lawyer having the same qualifications for judge of the Juvenile Court to hold court and discharge the duties of said Judge of the Juvenile Court. Any lawyer thus designated and appointed shall be paid in the same manner as the salary of the judges of the Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans. Prior acts of the Legislature, including those which it may have enacted at its regular session in 1968, pertaining to the salary and the number of judges of the Juvenile Court for the Parish of Orleans are hereby ratified and confirmed.

           (Amended by Acts 1936, No. 60, adopted Nov. 3, 1936; Acts 1938, No. 390, adopted Nov. 8, 1938; Acts 1944, No. 322, adopted Nov. 7, 1944; Acts 1948, No. 513, adopted Nov. 2, 1948; Acts 1968, No. 706, adopted Nov. 5, 1968.)