All felony criminal matters will be handled by the ten judges.
All felony indictments and felony information filed in the Clerk's of Court Offices of St. Tammany and Washington Parish, shall be allotted, as described below, to one of the ten sections. If a motion is filed by the defense in any matter prior to the filing of a bill of information or indictment the Clerk shall cause the case to be allotted randomly to one of the ten Divisions for purposes of hearing that motion. If a bill of information or indictment is later filed in that same case, the case will remain in the section to which it was originally allotted. The Clerk of Court's office, shall allot each case by random lot drawing.
2. Criminal cases shall be divided into five (5) classes which shall be designated as follows:
CLASS 1 All capital cases.
CLASS 2 Any case which has a possible penalty of life imprisonment, with the exception of the capital cases.
CLASS 3 All felony cases requiring a twelve (12) member jury wherein ten (10) of the twelve (12) jurors must concur with the exception of the aforementioned cases.
CLASS 4 All felony cases requiring a trial by a six (6) member jury.
CLASS 5 All felony worthless check cases. The penalty of offense charged at the time of the alleged commission of the act shall determine the classification of the particular case. A separate allotment shall be conducted for each class, based on the character of the crime charged. The office of the District Attorney is to classify each case before filing the bills of information or indictment.
3. All True Bills, and/or Bills of Information dismissed or quashed and subsequently refiled, shall be assigned to the division of original allotment. The foregoing shall be applicable only if aforementioned refilings are of the same offense and same or lower class. In the instance of being of a higher class, such case would be placed in the daily allotment and the division losing such case will be assigned an extra case, at the next allotment of equal class to balance such loss.
4. Upon written motion of the State, of the Defense, or by the Court on its own motion, any case may be transferred from one docket of the court to another by written order signed by both of the Judges.
5. After sentencing, if a condition of probation is referral to the 22nd Judicial District Drug Court, the defendant's case shall be allotted randomly to one of the two divisions of drug court. The defendant shall be subject to all of the terms and conditions of drug court. If the defendant's participation in drug court is terminated unsatisfactorily, the matter shall be returned to the originally allotted division for revocation or other appropriate proceedings.
6. Misdemeanor cases are not allotted. There shall be one misdemeanor docket. Any Judge may be scheduled for misdemeanor trials.