Each circuit contains one court of appeal identified as the 1st Circuit, 2nd Circuit, etc. Each circuit consists of at least three of the state's district court districts. The judges for each circuit's court of appeal are elected from the districts the circuit represents. Each court of appeal has a panel of at least three judges to hear its cases. The primary role of the courts of appeal is to review the decision of the lower court and correct any mistakes.
Judges decide cases by majority agreement.
The only exception is to reverse a district court's decision in a civil case. In that situation all the judges must agree. If even one judge disagrees, the case is argued again before a five judge panel, and then a majority vote is final. In 1995, the Courts of Appeal received 3,920 cases which they were required to review and another 5,373 requests were made for review of cases which could be heard at the courts' discretion. Louisiana is divided into 41 judicial districts.