1979 Articles 80, 111, 125 to 127, 159, 201
ART. 80. The judicial power shall be vested in a Supreme Court, in courts of appeal, in district courts and in justices of the peace.
ART. 111. The district courts shall have jurisdiction of appeals from justices of the peace in all matters where the amount in controversy shall exceed ten dollars, exclusive of interest.
ART 125. In each parish, the parish of Orleans excepted, there shall be as many justices of the peace as may be provided by law. The present number of justices of the peace shall remain as now fixed until otherwise provided. They shall be elected for the term of four years by the qualified voters within the territorial limits of their jurisdiction. They shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil matters when the amount in dispute shall not exceed fifty dollars, exclusive of interest, and original jurisdiction concurrent with the district court, when the amount in dispute shall exceed fifty dollars, exclusive of interest, and shall not exceed one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest. They shall have no jurisdiction in succession or probate matters, or when a succession is a defendant. They shall receive such fees or salary as may be fixed by law.
ART. 126. They shall have criminal jurisdiction as committing magistrates, and shall have power to bail or discharge in cases not capital or necessarily punishable at hard labor.
CONSTABLES.
ART. 127. There shall be a constable for the court of each justice of the peace in the several parishes of the State, the parish of Orleans excepted, who shall be elected for the term of four years by the qualified voters within the territorial limits of the jurisdiction of the several justices of the peace. The compensation, salarics or fees of constables and the amount of their bonds shall be fixed by the General Assembly.
ART. 159. No person shall hold or exercise, at the same time, more than one office of trust or profit, except that of justice of the peace or notary public.
ART 201. For any of the causes enumerated in article 196, district attorneys, clerks of court, sheriffs, coroners, recorders, justices of the peace and all other parish, municipal and ward officers shall be removed by judgment of the district court of the domicile of such officer (in the parish of Orleans the Civil District Court); and it shall be the duty of the district attorney, except when the suit is to be brought against himself, to institute suit in the manner directed in article 200, on the written request and information of twenty-five resident citizens and tax-payers in the case of district, parish or municipal officers, and of ten resident citizens and taxpayers in the case of ward officers. Such suit shall be brought against a district attorney by the district attorney of an adjoining district, or by counsel appointed by the judge for that purpose. In all such cases the defendant, the State and the citizens and taxpayers on whose information and at whose request such suit was brought, or any one of them, shall have the right to appeal, both on the law and the facts, from the judgment of the court. In all cases where the officer sued, as above directed, shall be acquitted, judgment shall be rendered jointly and in solido against the citizens signing the request, for all costs of the suit. In cases against district attorneys, clerks, sheriſts and recorders the appeal shall be to the Supreme Court, and in cases against all other officers the appeal shall be to the court of appeals of the proper circuit. Such appeals shall be returnable within ten days to the appellate court, wherever it may be sitting or wherever it may hold its next session, and may be transferred by order of the judges of said court to another parish within their circuit, and such appeals shall be tried by preference-over all others. In case of the refusal or neglect of the district attorney or Attorney General to institute and prosecute any suit provided for in this and the preceding article, the citizens and taxpayers making the request, or any one of them, shall have the right by mandamus to compel him to perform such duty.
