As Lafayette voters head to the polls on November 3, there will be an unusual item on the ballot: an election for a Family Court position held by a sitting judge, Susan Theall. The role falls under the 15th Judicial District Court, which covers Lafayette, Acadia and Vermilion Parishes and involves 13 elected judges.
The 15th Judicial District Court includes two specialty courts — Juvenile Court and Family Court — that were approved by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1998.
For custody disputes and divorces that involve minor children, cases are randomly assigned to one of two divisions under the family court: Division H, overseen by Judge David Blanchet, or Division M, overseen by Chief Judge Susan Theall.
Divorces for couples without children are randomly allotted to one of the eleven other judges on the district court; those divisions are not considered part of Family Court.
Judge Blanchet reaches mandatory retirement this year. A Lafayette family law attorney, Shawn Eller, is running unopposed for the open seat.
Judge Susan Theall is running for re-election. She was first elected judge in a 2011 special election and served for three years, then elected again for a full term in 2020. A local family law attorney, Dyan Schnaars, is challenging her.
The move is unusual, according to two attorneys who spoke to The Current, given the vacancy left by Judge Blanchet’s retirement and Judge Theall’s incumbency.
The election is consequential for Lafayette’s many families, says Jonathan Jarrett, a Lafayette attorney who specializes in family law, criminal law and personal injury. In recent years, family court has become busier.
For families that struggle to sort out disputes around custody and divorce, family court judges play a pivotal role.
“I would love to say that every judge would rule the same in every case. I think practically, that’s probably not true,” Jarrett says.
So who, in his opinion, makes for a good Family Court judge?
“Having someone sitting in the judge’s seat who, number one, is willing to listen; and number two cares about the actual result; and number three can make people understand what they they’re doing, why they’re in court, what the law is, so that even if the case doesn’t go in their way they at least understand that someone listen to them and apply the law fairly — that’s the best result anyone could have in coming into contact with the legal system,” Jarrett says.
In this election, Schnaars, a family law attorney with her own firm in Lafayette, is challenging incumbent judge Theall.
Schnaars grew up in a big family, with 15 siblings, in Alexandria. She moved to Lafayette in her early twenties and began working in a local law firm — first as a secretary, then as a licensed paralegal. After years of working in the legal field, Schnaars followed the advice of a mentor and applied to law school.
Schnaars had a stint in personal injury law, then switched to family law, which she has practiced for 14 years.
“I love family law because I get to relate to people,” Schnaars tells The Current. “I can relate to them because I’ve been through it. But I can also relate to them because I learned the law, and I learned how the law can give you comfort and the areas that you really can’t do anything about.”
Schnaars advises her clients who are parents not to get side-tracked with the pain of a divorce. “The biggest concern is making sure you’re a safe parent. And being a safe parent means you have to love them more than whatever it is that’s holding you back from being a safe parent,” she says.
Her opponent, Theall, also came into family law somewhat by accident. “Women were expected to do family law because, you know, we’re nurturers, we’re women, we have children, that kind of thing. And I was bound and determined I was not going to do what someone expected me to do,” she says.
Theall started her own private practice soon after graduating from law school in the 1980s. As a young lawyer with a growing practice, she took any case she could get. So when a colleague referred a custody case involving a young father to her, she accepted — and won the case. “When I saw the impact that that had on that family, I kind of got hooked,” she says.
Theall grew her legal practice in Opelousas, then moved her practice to Lafayette in 1992 to focus exclusively on family law. In 1995, the Louisiana State Bar Association offered a specialization in family law; Theall was a member of the first class of board-certified specialists.
As judge, in an effort to limit the time spent in court, Theall introduced pre-trial conferences for attorneys, in which they present their clients’ arguments in a session outside of court and seek to find a common ground. “As we talk it out, one of my favorite things to say with the lawyers is that, ‘in the family court, we’re not gladiators, we’re problem solvers,’” she says. “I really try to get people to think outside the box and to try to resolve the problems.”
The goal, she says, is to avoid acrimonious court sessions. “The whole idea of family court is to solve the problems of this family, and to try to keep them out of court because it’s very destructive to families and to children.”
Theall secured funding in 2011 from the Louisiana Supreme Court to develop a program, Kids First, to assess substance abuse issues in parents and require steps towards recovery. In her second term, she hopes to raise more funding for the program, and expand mental health services for children and families.
“Kids need stability. They need someone who’s going to take care of their needs, so they can become well-attached,” she says.
Schnaars’ decision to challenge Theall, rather than pursue the seat of the retiring Blanchet, she tells The Current, stems from certain cases that she feels Judge Theall mishandled and the court’s slow pace.
As judge, she says, she would institute pre-trial orders — which she says are currently not used in family court — to assign deadlines to attorneys and keep cases moving. The orders are binding documents that set procedural rules and schedules for trials before they begin.
“I don’t want to give all my plans away, but I would also like to have some stipulation pages that I’m going to put together,” she says, adding that this would likely save attorneys and their clients precious time they’d otherwise spend waiting for decisions to be put on the record. Stipulation pages put formal agreements into writing and on the record, when they’re made.
As judge, Schnaars says she would put pressure on attorneys to show up in court fully prepared. “I want the attorneys to earn the money they are being paid. It’s really hard on families financially right now.”
Theall defends her courtroom’s management, arguing there’s a balance to strike between moving things along and affording due process.
“Let me tell you, with the amount of cases that we have, we are as efficient as we can possibly be. Really and truly. Because there’s no way you can hear as many issues as there are, otherwise.” An increasing number of plaintiffs in Family Court, Judge Theall adds, are unable to afford their own attorneys, and represent themselves, which can also cause cases to drag on.
“That does slow the process down, but you can’t be efficient and deny them the opportunity to come to court. You know, they deserve access to justice too.” Judge Theall referenced some measures she has taken to speed along the process, like starting court at 9 a.m. and holding pre-trial conferences.
Finally, Schnaars says she holds concerns about Judge Theall’s fitness as a judge.
“I am greatly concerned that she is running family court without the benefit of a maternal perception,” she says.
“It’s not a personal criticism. It’s not. If you don’t want to get married and have children, that’s your business,” she clarifies. “I do believe that it puts her at a disadvantage, perception-wise, in understanding the complexities of the intersection between personal trauma, like divorce and addiction and abuse, and your intense obligations as a mom or a dad. And until you’re a parent, there are things in life you don’t comprehend.”
“Every time I’ve run for office, some tacky person has brought that out,” Theall tells The Current in response. “Really and truly, it’s like saying you have to be a criminal to be a criminal court judge. It’s an attempt, I think, to denigrate someone. Not every woman has children.”
