Art. 4866.Power and Authority of Judge Ad Hoc

Article 4866 closes Chapter 3 with a guarantee that ties together every appointment the preceding articles authorize. Whether a judge ad hoc is named to try a recusal motion under Article 4863, to take over a case after a recusal under Article 4864, or to fill in for a judge who is temporarily unable to preside under Article 4865, that ad hoc judge steps into the role with full authority.

Article 4866 defines that authority as the same power the replaced judge would have had, but only over the causes or on the dates covered by the appointment. A judge ad hoc named to handle one case, or to sit for a specified stretch of time, does not become a general substitute for every matter on the court's docket; the appointment order itself marks the boundary of what the ad hoc judge may do.

Within that boundary, nothing is diminished. Rulings, orders, and judgments the ad hoc judge issues carry the same weight as if the regular judge had issued them, so parties do not need to treat an ad hoc judge's decisions as provisional or subject to a different standard of review.