Art. 193.Power to Adopt Local Rules; Publication

Article 193 lets each court fill in the details of practice and procedure that statewide rules leave open. Paragraph A permits a court to adopt local rules governing how judicial business gets conducted before it, including matters of practice and procedure, as long as those local rules do not contradict rules already established by law. This is why a litigant appearing in a given parish or district should check that court’s local rules in addition to the statewide Code of Civil Procedure.

Where more than one judge sits on a court, Article 193 requires that local rules be adopted or amended by a majority of the judges acting together, sitting en banc, rather than by any single judge acting alone. That requirement keeps local procedure consistent across the judges of the same court, so a party’s experience does not depend on which judge happens to be assigned to the case.

Paragraph B requires local rules to be entered on the minutes of the court, creating an official record of what the rules are and when they took effect. For appellate courts, publication happens in whatever manner the court finds most effective and practicable, giving appellate courts flexibility in how they make their rules known to the lawyers who practice before them.