BATON ROUGE — A bill establishing certain pretrial timelines was recently signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards and will take effect later this year.
House Bill No. 6 (HB6), sponsored by state Rep. Patrick Connick (R-Marrero), concerns lawsuits that are pending for more than one year after initial filing and have no set trial date. Under these circumstances, any party involved in the suit may file a motion for the court to set a conference to resolve issues which are delaying the suit.
HB6 received 90 "yeas" and 0 "nays" in the state House, and the state Senate later voted in favor of the bill, with 33 "yeas" to 0 "nays."
On May 15, Edwards signed the bill, which then became Act No. 254. The act is set to take effect on Aug. 1.