16th JDC Judge Lewis Pitman
The following short video captures the essence of Broussard v. LSP Trooper Scott Lopez and his son, Benjamin Cole, regarding today’s (April 24, 2023) hearing on Lopez’s Peremptory Exception of No Cause of Action:
April 24, 2023 brief overview and interview with Billy Broussard regarding the Peremptory Exception filed by Scott and Benjamin Lopez argued before Judge Lewis Pitman on April 24, 2023.
As we indicated, we’re placing an order for a transcript mainly because, in our opinion, it will offer a very, very sharp contrast to the transcript of February 15, 2023 entailing Broussard v. Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard et. al. in which a similar Peremptory Exception was urged.
Beyond the complimentary words which Judge Pitman had for Broussard, to include him, “posing arguments better than some attorneys who have argued before me,” we find it noteworthy that, on the just-linked transcript, Judge Vincent Borne seemed fixated on awarding attorney fees to Girouard and her co-defendant, Melissa Dubroc, while Judge Pitman never even uttered the first word about any such potential imposition of attorney fees.
As Burns noted on the video above, Pitman (not quite verbatim) looked at defense attorney Eric Haik, and said (again, not quite verbatim, but we’ll soon have the transcript), “I’m sorry about the time and resources, but I have to render decisions within the confines of the law.” What an absolutely awesome utterance! Also, to his credit, Haik stated that he fully understood Judge Pitman’s position.
Most of Haik’s arguments centered around LSP Trooper Lopez’s First Amendment Right of Free Speech, making it all the more perplexing that Haik failed to assert LA CCP Article 971. Had he done so within the 90-day period after service was perfected, he may have prevailed in his quest for attorney fees since a party prevailing in asserting such a Special Motion to Strike, “shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs.”
It just may be that Haik doesn’t routinely practice civil defense litigation but rather more commonly represents plaintiffs. If so, the situation may be akin to asking the offensive coordinator of a football team to be the defensive coordinator for a season after having spent decades running the offense. That’s just a theory because we have to believe that attorney Amy Groves Lowe would most certainly have filed a Special Motion to Strike. From Groves Lowe’s professional profile:
Amy has more than 20 years of experience in representing public agencies, public employees and public officials in federal and state courts, in administrative hearings, and before the Louisiana Legislature.
As we’ve previously indicated, Groves Lowe very recently prevailed on an assertion of LA CCP Article 971 in obtaining a $9,700 award of attorney’s fees against former ATC Commissioner Murphy Painter in defense of his former investigator, Shane Evans.
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