Court rules Charity Hospital closure suit belongs in Baton Rouge, LA

After sitting on the question for the better part of the year, the Louisiana Supreme Court has handed the Louisiana State University System a legal victory and ruled that a lawsuit challenging the closing of Charity Hospital must be heard in East Baton Rouge Parish. The seven patients who filed the lawsuit want it tried in New Orleans, and a group of New Orleans lawyers originally filed the suit in January 2008 asking the Orleans Parish court to order the reopening of the giant hospital or mandate that the state replace it with equivalent services.