FROM
WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 9, 2005; Page A12

Louisiana Legal System Is Snarled

By THOMAS M. BURTON
Staff Reporter

Hurricane damage has cast the Louisiana legal system into disarray, with courts and cases suspended or relocated, criminal and civil evidence imperiled or destroyed, and lawyers relocated around the U.S. desperately seeking work.

The extent of the destroyed evidence and lawsuit files remains uncertain, as several courts remain inaccessible or under water. But because of the damage, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco this week issued an order suspending all state civil-court deadlines, such as statutes of limitations dictating when cases must be filed, at least through Sept. 25.

Many civil and criminal trial courts have suspended operations in the parishes, or counties, in the New Orleans area. The federal district court in New Orleans says it is "closed until further notice" and that it hopes to reopen in three locations -- Houma, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La. The Louisiana Supreme Court has moved to Baton Rouge, and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has shifted temporarily to Houston.

"There could be damage to the court records or filings, but we just don't know," said Robert E. Kleinpeter, president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, referring to several New Orleans-area courts.

Michelle Ghetti, a law professor at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, said that various Louisiana prosecutors met via conference call Thursday in part to discuss the extent of damage to criminal-case evidence. In an email to law colleagues, Prof. Ghetti recently wrote that courts "in as many as eight parishes/counties are under water, as well as three of our circuit courts, with evidence/files at each of them ruined."

As for criminal courts, most law-enforcement authorities have been preoccupied with maintaining the peace as much as they can, and haven't had a chance to focus on courts or evidence. The damage to records and briefs at many law firms is expected to be immense. Tom Alexander of CLC Inc., a legal-referral company, said, "There are a lot of large law firms that are not going to be able to recover their files."

Write to Thomas M. Burton at tom.burton@wsj.com3

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