A bipartisan group of senior Louisiana lawmakers have called for reform of the state’s justice of the peace courts after an investigation published by the Guardian revealed systemic due process issues that experts have labeled “blatantly unconstitutional”. Louisiana’s justices of the peace courts, which oversee thousands of evictions annually, alongside other small claims and civil matters, are uniquely funded by the filing fees that each court generates. The Guardian revealed a system that brings in millions of dollars a year in filing fee revenue – leading to a handful of justices, who are compensated directly from this income, earning lucrative amounts.
One justice in the New Orleans metro area, Chuck Cusimano II, earned in excess of $400,000 in 2025, mostly from eviction filing fees – over $80,000 more than the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, earns in salary. He is among five justices identified by the Guardian who made more than $220,000 in income from filing fees in at least one year from 2023 to 2025. Experts say the system creates incentives for justices to rule in favor of landlords who bring in repeat cases to their courts and routinely denies tenants their due process rights in one of the poorest states in the US amid a nationwide affordable housing crisis.
All of that is “an obvious cause for concern, and it needs to be looked at – and addressed”, the Republican state house member Jerome Zeringue said after the Guardian began publishing its reporting on 20 October. He also argued for setting minimum standards for justices of the peace, who are not required to hold law licenses – and only need a high-school diploma and to be considered of “good moral character”. Referring to the justices generating the most in filing fees, Zeringue said “the compensation … appears to be unfair”.
The Guardian has asked Cusimano for comment on Zeringue’s calls for legislative scrutiny. In response to the Guardian’s investigation, Cusimano said: “I made a very good living last year. I am not embarrassed for the work I do.
And I think that I do the exact same work as every other justice of the peace in this state for each case.” Cusimano also said he had a high number of cases because there were “a lot of apartments” in his jurisdiction. Meanwhile, Zeringue confirmed he is considering drafting new legislation to address the system ahead of the state’s legislative session in April. Many of Zeringue’s legislative colleagues from across the political aisle expressed similar thoughts about the need for changes, a rare instance of bipartisanship among Louisiana lawmakers.
The leader of Louisiana’s state house Democratic caucus, Kyle Green, said: “Every measure should be taken to avoid even the appearance that the [justice of the peace system] operates as a revenue-generating enterprise. State senate member Royce Duplessis – a Democrat who represents parts of the city of New Orleans and the adjacent Jefferson parish, which has some of the highest revenue-generating justice of the peace courts – said: “A system where a judge’s salary or income is tied to the volume of cases … is a perverse incentive. Responding to the Guardian’s investigation, Cusimano forcefully denied that landlords repeatedly paying fees to file eviction cases in his court might represent a built-in conflict of interest, stating that landlords pay the fees irrespective of the outcome.
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