Symposium on Civil Procedure: Introduction

Two separate, but coordinated, procedural reforms which make sweeping changes in the civil procedure of Louisiana go into effect during the current six-months period. The first, a drastic revision of the civil jurisdiction of the appellate courts of the state, was designed to expedite appellate review and to relieve the Supreme Court of an intolerable burden which has hampered its efficacy during the past decade, and went into effect on July 1, 1960. The blueprints for this procedural reform were drafted by the Judicial Council of Louisiana after more than three years of research and study. The second program of procedural reform, the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure and its companion legislation, represents roughly eleven years of work by the Louisiana State Law Institute. The new procedural code goes into effect on January 1, 1961.