The recent interventions in the family court in Baton Rouge have served mostly to hurt the credibility of the institution and the lawyers practicing there without good cause.
Family court has a special responsibility, which is successfully carried out in most of the cases before the judges there. Every litigant in the family court is dealing with matters which are generally the most important to any of us — our children, our livelihoods, our property, all between parties who have predetermined to at least dislike one another. Many parties are disgruntled. The matters polarizing all of society are litigated many times, first in family court. Nearly every lawyer practices at one time or another in family court, and only a few endeavor to practice there on a regular basis because of the difficulty of the practice. Hard cases make bad law, and a few select difficult cases with recalcitrant litigants should not color the public view of the judges in family court or the lawyers who practice there. Some of the comments made are very certainly provably untrue.
There is no lawyer who practices in the family court of East Baton Rouge Parish who “wins every case” before “a certain judge.” There are always lawyers in any locality or area of practice who are intimidating to younger or less experienced lawyers because of their level of experience, their judgment and their ability to choose those cases where they have a good chance of prevailing.
Judge Pam Baker has been an exemplary judge throughout her career and is certainly not corrupt. I could write a point-by-point rebuttal to nearly every observation made, but it would not fit the word limit of this publication. I will rephrase a popular saying to remark that politics rushes in where angels fear to tread.
JEFF WITTENBANK
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