Louisiana Justice Chuck Cusimano II Retires as $400,000 Eviction-Fee Court Passes to Unopposed Son
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 20
Louisiana Justice Chuck Cusimano II Retires as $400,000 Eviction-Fee Court Passes to Unopposed Son
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 20
Summary
Chuck Cusimano II said he will retire at year-end, and his son Chuck Cusimano III is the only candidate to take over the Jefferson Parish court.
Nearly $400,000 in 2025 pay came largely from eviction fees at Cusimano’s court, where records reviewed by the Guardian showed almost 3,300 eviction judgments in 12 months.
1st Lake Properties drove more than 60% of that docket, while tenants rarely had lawyers—only 26 were identified—and the district’s eviction filing rate was nearly one in five renter households.
The report says Louisiana’s justices of the peace are paid directly from court fees, a structure housing advocates and legal experts call unconstitutional because it rewards speed, volume and landlord-friendly rulings.
That scrutiny has widened beyond Cusimano: one justice resigned after excessive-fee findings, another faces a class-action suit, and lawmakers have recently expanded the system’s authority.
How does a judge earning hundreds of thousands in fees decide the fate of 86 families in just 36 minutes?
Could mounting federal lawsuits finally dismantle a controversial system that evicts tenants in less than 24 hours?
The Price of Eviction: Louisiana’s Justice of the Peace Courts, Judicial Pay, and the Push for Federal Reform
Overview
The report examines how Louisiana’s unique fee-funded justice system allows justices of the peace, like the Cusimano family in Jefferson Parish, to earn high personal compensation directly from eviction case fees. Dense apartment development leads to thousands of filings, generating nearly $1 million in annual court revenue and over $400,000 in earnings for a single judge. State law enables uncontested family succession and lets landlords shift court costs to tenants through lease clauses. This system, which links judicial income to case volume, faces federal constitutional challenges and legislative resistance, highlighting deep concerns about fairness and financial incentives in Louisiana’s eviction courts.