The New Orleans City Attorney recently dismissed almost 400,000 cases in Municipal and Traffic Court. We have worked tirelessly for many years for a solution to the hundreds of thousands of open cases and outstanding attachments because we see the devastating collateral effects to our clients and community. This concern was the impetus for our Muni at the Mission project in 2016.
OPD's full statement on this extraordinary step forward:
The elimination of almost 400,000 cases in Municipal and Traffic Court is an incredible feat worth celebrating. This is the result of many years of partnership and persistent advocacy between OPD and community partners, including Stand with Dignity, who led this fight. We are thrilled for the relief this brings to so many New Orleanians and applaud these initial steps by the City and Courts. Today is truly a new day.
While this is a critical first step, we agree with Mayor Cantrell that there is much work still to be done. Thousands of cases and attachments still remain. Too many still face significant barriers because of this ongoing backlog. We remain committed to work with the Courts, Clerk, City Attorney, and community to ensure this progress continues.
For more on this progress, read the article in The Lens.
New Orleans City Attorney dismisses nearly 400,000 old cases in Municipal and Traffic Court
Over 385,000 old cases that were languishing in Municipal and Traffic Court were dismissed by New Orleans City Attorney Sunni LeBeouf and court judges earlier this month — cutting the number of backlogged open cases in half. The cases dismissed were non-violent offenses that occurred prior to 2010. The vast majority were traffic violations.
The decision came after pressure from advocates — spearheaded by by the organization Stand With Dignity — who argued that open, low-level, municipal and traffic cases create an unnecessary burden on some of the most vulnerable individuals in the city, leading to cycles of debt, suspended drivers licenses, and job loss. Outstanding warrants related to those cases, called attachments, mean that individuals can be picked up by police and booked in jail — even when the underlying offense wouldn’t merit a prison sentence.
