Whether judges should personally benefit from court fees is at the center of a growing debate over Louisiana's justice-of-the-peace system. In Jefferson Parish, justice of the peace Charles Cusimano II made more than $400,000 in 2025, most of it from fees generated by eviction cases he oversees. His Harahan court processed more than 5,500 eviction cases between June 2025 and May 2026, issuing roughly 3,300 eviction orders and collecting $380,929 in fees on top of a $21,600 parish salary. State lawmakers are now calling for an overhaul of the system that pays him.
Those figures come from a state audit and a nine-month investigation by the Guardian, which analyzed more than 11,000 pages of eviction records and 3,400 financial disclosure forms as part of a broader look at Louisiana's 390 part-time justices of the peace. Those justices, who are not required to be lawyers, handle small claims, wage garnishments, weddings and evictions, and Louisiana is the only state where they earn income directly from the court fees they charge, according to the Guardian's reporting. Eviction cases alone can generate $150 or more in fees, and the state's eviction process can move forward on just 72 hours' notice.
State Rep. Jerome Zeringue, a Houma Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees the justice-of-the-peace system, said the process needs reform. He said the fee-based structure likely favors landlords over tenants and that many justices have not completed even the minimum required training. Zeringue also said justices who function as judges should have legal experience and education, according to WWL-TV.
A Court That Moved Fast and Rarely Sided With Tenants
On June 18, Cusimano heard 86 eviction cases in 36 minutes and ordered tenants out in 85, the Guardian found. Tenants won 141 cases in total; in 88 of those, the landlord failed to appear. Nationwide studies show most tenants in eviction court lack an attorney. The Guardian reported that representation in Cusimano's courtroom could be as low as 1%. He holds hearings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, generally between 9 a.m. and noon, in a government building in an Elmwood office park.
Cusimano told the Guardian his district's unusually large number of apartment complexes explains the high caseload, and he said he acts quickly on the bench but still lets tenants make their case, stopping them only when their stories stray from the eviction itself. He said he has never prevented anyone from being heard and noted that landlords pay their filing fees upfront regardless of the outcome, disagreeing that this creates a conflict of interest. He also said Louisiana law allows tenants to withhold rent over maintenance problems only if they notify the landlord in writing and pay for repairs themselves when the landlord won't. Cusimano did not respond to WWL's interview request, and he is not seeking reelection; Chuck Cusimano III is the only candidate who qualified for the seat.
Experts Say Fees Create an Incentive to Evict
Tenant advocates and legal experts told the Guardian that tying court fees directly to a justice's personal income creates conflicts of interest that can incentivize evictions. Davida Finger, associate dean of the Loyola law clinic, said profiting from court filings creates incentives and disincentives that undermine due process. Lisa Foster, a retired California Superior Court judge and former director of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for Access to Justice, described the process as blatantly unconstitutional and said Louisiana's justice-of-the-peace system has failed citizens while no one takes action, according to the Guardian's reporting. The outlet also cited a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court precedent finding that a defendant's rights are violated when a judge has a direct financial interest in a case's outcome.
Statewide financial records examined by the Louisiana Illuminator show Cusimano is not alone. East Baton Rouge Parish justice Steven Sanders generated nearly $2.7 million in court-fee revenue between 2019 and 2023, averaging $232,419 a year in take-home pay. Kevin Centanni presided over 60 eviction cases in a single week in Kenner in February 2023 and reported that year's compensation at $147,637, including $115,000 from fees, while Vernon Wilty III added $202,543 in fees to a base salary of $24,134. The Guardian found Cusimano was one of five Louisiana justices earning more than $220,000 annually from fees.
A Tenant's Account of a Hearing in a Library
Lesley Wilson, a domestic violence victim, and her family were evicted from their rental home in Iberia Parish in April 2025. Wilson said she found an eviction notice on her door the morning after seeking a restraining order, just after police were called when her alleged abuser attacked her; the notice cited disturbing the neighbors and fighting as reasons and gave her five days to vacate. Her hearing was held in a public library meeting room that she said was open to anyone walking through the hallway, and she said the presiding justice, Patrick Broussard, and her landlord, Steven Freyou, arrived late and spoke outside for about 10 minutes before the hearing began.
Wilson said Freyou told her he had the justice of the peace in his pocket and could get the outcome he wanted, and that the justice seemed upset she had an attorney on the phone. Without that attorney, she said, the hearing likely would have ended in under five minutes. She has since filed a federal lawsuit alleging Louisiana's justice-of-the-peace system routinely violates tenants' due process rights, and said she wants fair hearings before someone who knows the law, suggesting eviction cases be moved to district court instead. After moving out, she lived in an RV without running water on a friend's lawn while filing for disability. Broussard referred questions to Attorney General Liz Murrill's office, which did not respond to WWL's request for comment, and Freyou did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment.
Separate Lawsuit Challenges the Fee System Itself
A separate class-action lawsuit, detailed by the Advocate, argues that the Louisiana law allowing justices of the peace to fund their salaries and operating expenses through eviction fees violates the 14th Amendment. That suit contends tenants in Sanders' court do not receive the same formal-trial protections — including rules of evidence or an on-the-record hearing — that tenants get in district or city courts, and it draws comparisons to a 2019 Fifth Circuit case involving an institutional conflict of interest tied to Orleans Parish Criminal District Court fees.
What the Court Precedents Do—and Don't—Say
The constitutional concern in the lawsuits is whether a judge can provide a neutral hearing when court revenue is tied to cases before that judge. According to Forbes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1927 against an Ohio village court where the mayor heard Prohibition cases and half of the fines went to the village. In 2019, the Fifth Circuit found an unconstitutional institutional conflict involving Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judges and court revenue.
Loyola law clinic staff attorney Chris Kerrigan, who has represented hundreds of tenants in eviction cases, said justice-of-the-peace eviction hearings have occurred beside pools and at kitchen tables. Attorney Donald Hodge said one hearing he witnessed lacked orders, rules, procedure and law, and argued the system needs reform because many tenants don't know their rights or can't afford an attorney. The Louisiana Legislature's own resolution notes that justice-of-the-peace courts, authorized under state law, hold concurrent jurisdiction with district courts in civil matters — meaning the stakes for tenants are the same even when the courtroom procedures are not.
Replacing fee-based funding for these courts would likely require another revenue source, usually state funding, according to WWNO. The Justices of the Peace & Constables Association did not respond to WWL's request for comment. Zeringue has said he's weighing legislation ahead of the next legislative session, as bipartisan support for changing the system appears to be building among Louisiana lawmakers.
