Art. 4864 Appointment of judge ad hoc after recusal

When a judge in a parish or city court steps aside from a case (or is forced to step aside), the case still needs someone to hear it. If that court has more than one judge, another judge from the same court takes over the case. Courts have their own local rules for picking which judge that will be.

If the court only has one judge, or there's no other judge available at that court, the Louisiana Supreme Court steps in and appoints a different judge to handle the case instead.

The same basic idea applies to justices of the peace. If a justice of the peace recuses themselves from a case, the Supreme Court appoints another justice of the peace to take over and hear it.