Clerk, Criminal District Court

League of Women Voters^®
of New Orleans

Arthur A. Morrell

NAME: Arthur D. Morrell
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR PUBLICATION:
Address: 1660Treasure St., New Orleans, LA 70119
Phone: Temporary no: (225) 622-1595
FAX: (225) 622-1595 (call first)
Email: arthurmorrell@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.arthurforclerk.com
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
PROFESSION: Attorney-At-Law
PRESENT EMPLOYER/POSITION (if self-employed, what type of business):
Self employed
HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION (include graduation date):
J.D.
APPLICABLE TRAINING: Fed Voters Rights Examiner
CIVIC EXPERIENCE: T.C.A. Board Member; NOCCA/River Front board Member Very Special Art Board Member
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: State Rep 23 years
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIPS:
1. What significant challenges does this office face after Katrina?
The Hurricane did lots of damage to the property room obviously which is located in the basement and is where the evidence for trial is stored. There is going to be a need to restore and salvage items from that storage that will affect the outcome of pending trials. Also what's not talked about much is the records room which is also on the basement floor there the records are kept obviously they need to be restored. I am aware of offers by archival societies offering assistance with the restoration and as clerk I will gladly entertain and act upon those offers. It's too important for the public safety of our citizens not to.
2. How could the responsibilities and funding of this office be effectively combined with the duties of the Clerk of Civil District Court?
This is a popular questions these days but it's not one that should be given to knee jerk responses. To merge these offices would bring plenty of interesting challenges and challenges quite frankly that I'm not sure were ready to deal with post Katrina with all that's going on. Questions hat we need to ask before rushing to a merger would how much would the combined workforce of the merged courts increase? What logistical and transportation burdens would it put on the Criminal Sheriff's office? They obviously would feel the pinch of a merger unless the merged offices were in the present Criminal Clerks office which I don't see happening. An by last count a new complex would cost upwards of $500,000,000 (five hundred million dollars)! I'm not sure the state is ready to fund the. LOL. So in short I'm not sure this question can be effectively answer because it doesn't probe the issue deeply enough.
3. What information or services in this office could go on the Internet and do you have plans to increase on-line access to your office?
I think the Internet is the wrong question once again. The office and the entire criminal justice complex The D.A. The Sheriff, The Courts, and N.O.P.D. Headquarters could benefit from inter-connectivity and realtime file sharing. Incredibly that doesn't exist. It needs to for our management of the entire criminal justice process to be more effective. The only benefit I see from internet could be perhaps the introduction of a voluntary pay in system for attorneys to check dockets and so forth which cold be used to raise much needed funds. It's not like civil Court where you have to pay to file, thus raising money. Their customers are voluntary, ours customers are not usually there by their own will nor do they see a benefit from being there. There's a pretty big difference. We could post commissioners education and poll site changes and perhaps court dates but because many of those who visit our offices don't have internet access or even computer access I'm not sure how much of a help that would be. Our office doesn't lend itself to very much interactivity because of the nature of our work.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: August 26, 2008 04:56 PDT.