Art. 4549.Temporary and Preliminary Interdiction; Attorney

Some interdiction cases cannot wait for the ordinary hearing schedule. Article 4549 lets a court order temporary interdiction without notice or an adversarial hearing when it finds that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will otherwise befall the defendant's person or property before a hearing could be held. The order itself has to state why notice and a hearing were skipped, and the court must schedule a preliminary interdiction hearing within ten days of signing the ex parte judgment, extendable once for up to ten more days on the defendant's motion or for extraordinary reasons shown at a contradictory hearing.

To get that emergency relief, the pleading requesting temporary interdiction must come with supporting documentation: an affidavit from a licensed physician or psychologist attesting to the grounds for temporary interdiction set out in Civil Code Article 391, a verified petition or affidavit attesting to the facts showing immediate and irreparable harm, and an affidavit describing the efforts made to notify the defendant or explaining why notice should not be required.

The preliminary interdiction stage that follows is not another ex parte step. The court cannot grant a judgment of preliminary interdiction without an adversarial hearing, held within twenty days of the order scheduling it, and every order, pleading, and supporting document must be served personally on the defendant and the defendant's attorney at least seventy-two hours before that hearing, with reasonable notice efforts extended to other persons named in the petition.

The right to counsel runs through both stages. Article 4549 requires the court to appoint an attorney in the ex parte judgment of temporary interdiction itself and in every order scheduling a preliminary interdiction hearing, discharging that appointment only once the defendant retains private counsel or intelligently and voluntarily waives the right to one.