on 28 april 2009 the louisiana legislature held a joint session to hear a report from the chief justice of the louisiana supreme court, catherine d. "kitty" kimball, called "the state of the judiciary in louisiana."
chief justice kimball opens by stating "i must tell you there are so many good things happening in our judiciary right now that i literally could speak to you for several hours and not cover all of them."
chief justice kimball then goes on to explain that right after she became chief justice she put out something called a vision statement for the court.
it's a simple statement by which they intend to measure the judicial system and the standard by which they intend to effectuate the change necessary to bring this vision to reality.
she said this "vision" is: hardworking judges that treat all within their purview with kindness, fairness and respect and who require that same treatment by his or her employees and the attorneys who appear before them in court.
a judiciary that is recognized by our state and our nation as having those qualities.
they envision a judiciary that handles its work efficiently and appreciates and cares as deeply about the disposition of a child abuse case, a juvenile case or a custody case as it does about a high profile civil lawsuit.
this vision she said is shared not only by these justices on the supreme court but by the many hardworking judges at all levels of our state judiciary.
they have begun throughout the state judiciary to implement measures to make this vision a reality.
they want to improve case management at all levels of the judiciary. they want to know why some courts and some judges dockets are handled quickly and efficiently and some are not. so they are going to examine those issues and afford assistance to any court that needs help with managing their dockets.
they believe very strongly that the court system should be run for the convenience of the users.
other steps the supremes have taken in judicial reform: in 2008 they implemented stringent rules for financial disclosure by state judges. they also revised and strengthened canon xi of the code of judicial conduct. rule xi covers gifts.
they are also concentrating on improving the competency of the judges by improving the judicial education that they offer.chief justice kimball said that
this committee consists of representatives from the governor's office including his executive counsel and senior policy adviser.
"we are concerned about the public perception of our branch of government. we have read, as have you, disparaging articles about our legal system from some national organizations.
we want to know the basis of these criticisms. if they are valid we want to address them. if they are not, we want to quell them.
to that end the court has appointed a committee to analyze these articles and to address them."
members of the legislature, including senators marionneaux and amedee and representatives harrison and abramson.
representatives from the conference of court of appeal judges, louisiana district judges association, representatives from labi, and labor, the defense bar, the association of justice and the state bar association.
this committee is enthusiastic in improving the image of louisiana's legal system. chief justice kimball said.
there is an increase in pro se litigants nationally and in louisiana using the court system. these are litigants who seek to file suit or pursue relief from a court without the assistance of an attorney.
chief justice kimball said that "obviously as the cost of litigation continues to be high and as the economy weakens more and more of our citizens who must utilize the court are trying to handle legal matters on their own.
the supreme court in concert with the louisiana state bar association has formed a committee to explore methods of assisting those pro se litigants in navigating the legal system.
in states such as ours where poverty might play a widespread yet unfortunate role in the lives of our citizens it is imperative that we move in this direction.
we must and we will, do more to make our courts available and accessible to all of louisiana citizens no matter what their means."
chief justice kimball goes on to discuss other things like the states lousy criminal justice and juvenile systems. she said that the juvenile justice system is something that is very dear to her heart.
she sure utters a lot of sweet sounding verbiage but is chief justice kimball naive or is she just a liar?
it was not even a handful of months after she stood there and said all about the judiciary and the legal system to the joint session, that we saw unethical, alexandria, la. shyster gregory r. aymond, launch along with his associates: alexandria, la. attorneys susan ford fiser and katherine geary as well as aymond's close deep personal friend and alleged "former" law partner, pineville, la. city court judge, phillip terrell, aymond's frivolous, nuisance louisiana style good ol boy network shakedown scam lawsuit utilizing the pineville, la. city court and the internet to terrify.
no one from the supreme court or from one of these committees has ever contacted us to possibly attempt "to quell" anything we've ever posted about louisiana's lousy judicial system and attorneys. including the corruption we've uncovered so far in the pineville, la. city court. of coz we're not a "national organization."
so we seriously doubt that these committees even exist or that anyone is attempting to watch over and protect the so called integrity of the louisiana judicial system -- much less improve its image.
