A bill dedicating roughly $292,000 a year for two new judgeships at 22nd Judicial District Court in Covington breezed through the House of Representatives Thursday and now awaits Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature.

Senate Bill 91, authored by Sen. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, was approved 101-0 and, pending Jindal’s endorsement, will create the 11th and 12th judgeship for the district covering St. Tammany and Washington parishes. The Senate already approved the measure in April.

“I am just elated that this has become a reality for St. Tammany Parish,” Quinn said, calling Jindal’s signature a formality. “As is, the court system does not work.” The new judgeships aimed at juvenile and family law cases would free the district’s 10 other judges to focus on other criminal and civil matters, a workload the state Supreme Court said should be relegated to 15 judges.

The approval Thursday is a victory for family lawyers who sometimes wait 15 hours to see a judge whose docket is backlogged with cases. Currently, only one day a month is dedicated to family law cases, meaning cases may be delayed three months or more, said the District’s Chief Judge Raymond Childress.

“The judges would certainly be better off,” Childress has said. “We would get litigants in and out of court much quicker.”

The bill also paves way for a 25-person task force that includes judges, attorneys, mental health professionals, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero Jr. and others to determine if Louisiana needs a uniform family court system and how it should function, Quinn said.

Quinn’s Senate Bill 46 calling for that task force was approved by both the House and the Senate and requires a comprehensive plan delivered to lawmakers in February 2009, Quinn said.

One such option the task force would consider is if family and juvenile law counselors are needed to mitigate heated emotional divorces, custody battles and more instead of judges or attorneys, Quinn said.

“These issues are so overshadowed” by litigation, she said.

Either way, “it’s a good start for a system I want to implement statewide,” she said.

Although elections for the two new judgeships are scheduled for an Oct. 4 primary with a runoff date Nov. 4, according to Jacque Berry, spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, candidates are already campaigning with signs and flyers peppered throughout the parish weeks before qualifying July 9-11.

Those elected will take office Jan. 1, the same date four other new judges will begin six-year terms to replace retiring judges Donald Fendlason, Elaine DiMicelli, Larry Green and Patricia Hedges.

Those judges will also be chosen by voters Oct. 4.