Ward 3 Lake Charles City Court’s jurisdiction consists of the entire city of nearly 85,000 residents plus about half of Calcasieu Parish — stretching as far north as the bridge into Moss Bluff, as far west as the Calcasieu River and as far south as the Calcasieu-Cameron line. There are two judges who sit on the court — Chief Judge Jamie Bice, who serves Division A, and Judge Ron Richard, who hears cases in Division B.

Being chief judge “doesn’t make me special, it just means I’ve been at the court longer,” Bice said with a laugh.

The court hears civil cases — such as car wrecks and evictions — as well all misdemeanor criminal matters within the city and about 40 percent of the misdemeanors within Ward 3.

Just like the region it serves, the court has faced its own challenges in the past few years.

“Lake Charles City Court, just like many of our personal lives and businesses, has been affected by two major events that have taken place since 2019,” he said. “The first one was the pandemic which not only affected us, it affected the nation. Then the Mike Tyson-type punch came after that, which was Hurricane Laura, followed by the Sugar Ray Leonard jab that was Hurricane Delta. Everyone felt it in their personal lives and it certainly affected Ward 3 Lake Charles City Court.”

Bice said the court has experienced a 63 percent decrease in criminal case filings directed from the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office from 2019 to 2021.

“Do we think that Lake Charles is inoculated from some of the issues that face the nation or anywhere else? I do not think so,” he said. “We did have two major things that happened. The pandemic had a profound effect on people going out, people driving, people being around. The storms also caused people not to be here and when they were here they were focused on rebuilding.”

The amount of cases filed in the court directed from the state level is also down 25 percent.

“That also can be directly attributed to the pandemic and the storms,” he said. “We had months when the court was not open. I wish we could say, like the old Johnny Cash ‘Man in Black’ line, ‘I’d love to wear a rainbow every day and tell the world that everything is OK.’ I don’t think that it is.”

Bice said the court has seen a 27 percent decrease in traffic tickets since 2019 and there has been a 16 percent decrease in traffic filings from the state.

The number of civil filings has also been slashed in half.

“The year 2019 was one of the highest years in which civil cases were filed in city court, it was almost 5,000,” Bice said. “Lake Charles was bustling, rocking and rolling, busting at the seams. Then the two-horned lizard hit Lake Charles and the court was shut down.”

Bice said the majority of the court’s civil cases involve evictions and the storm has had a tremendous effect on that with so many rental properties still vacant since the storms.

He said Lake Charles City Court has begun to tighten its belt, watch what it spends and has put a freeze on some new hires.

“We’re watching our expenditures just like you would do at your home or your business,” he said. “We’ve always had wonderful people working for us and they’ve also had life problems just like every one of us — roofs blown off, medical issues — but we manage to work in sync with our employees to make sure they know we have their backs.”

Bice, who stayed inside the court during Hurricane Laura, said the building had very little damage.

“It was quite a night, but we didn’t suffer anything like the federal court did; our federal court is having to meet in Lafayette right now,” he said. “Once we got the generators going, we went to the federal court and we went to the state court and asked them if they needed to use our court, they could. We provided the best we could for those folks when they needed it. The physical part of the court is in great shape.”

Bice said as the city continues to rebuild both its physical footprint and its population, business is picking up at city court.

“I’d like a world in which you don’t need Judge Bice and I’d love to tell the world that everything is OK, but it’s really not OK and you need a strong police force and a strong court system,” he said. “Things are picking up here, which makes sense, because they’re probably picking up in people’s personal lives and in their businesses. Those double whammies really affected all of us and we’re doing the best we can to tighten our belts and make the court as good as it has been and that’s what we’re going to do.”

He said one of the advantages of city court is the speed in which cases are heard.

“We get people into court to tell their story and we work very hard to make a decision,” Bice said. “Our backup times are a lot less than other courts and it’s by statute and by the way we operate. The most important thing is for people to tell their story, and my time is not too important to listen. I sleep really easy at night knowing my best friend or my worst enemy got the same from me — fairness. I treat them the same way — I give them my time, I give them my ear.”

Bice said he asked the Legislature about three years ago to increase the court’s jurisdictional limits from $35,000 to $50,000 and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

“Lake Charles was growing at such a rapid pace at that time that I thought we needed to be able to relieve the 14th Judicial District Court of some issues they were having to deal with and our Legislature was able to get that done,” he said.

Now, the move is allowing local families in dispute with their contractors or insurance providers over hurricane damages.

“There have been a large number of insurance cases and contractor cases that have been filed in our court because you can get to court quicker, get your decision, if you don’t like it there’s a quicker way to go up to the court of appeal,” he said. “The $50,000 limit is exclusive of two things — penalties and attorney fees. We find there have been a lot of people filing who may have $60,000-$70,000 worth of damages but they filed upon consultation with their attorneys in our court because they don’t have to wait a year to get a hearing. If they’re able to prove bad faith, they’re not limited by the $50,000, they’re entitled to get their penalties and attorney’s fees. That’s really how we’ve been able to maintain our civil docket. I’m just so glad we were able to get permission from the Legislature to do that.”

Bice said despite the court’s recent struggles, their future remains bright.

“Have we been hit? Yes. Have we crawled? Yes. But anybody who knows anything about me knows I’m going to get up and Judge Richard is the same way. We’ll be there bright and early every morning making sure we provide those services. We strive to be the best not only in this area, but in the state. We were that way once, and we’ll be that way again.”