BATON ROUGE - Five state legislators are pushing for transparency in East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court by filing a bill to allow court proceedings to be livestreamed. 

State Representatives Kathy Edmonston, Kellee Dickerson, Peter Egan, Dixon McMakin and State Senator Regina Barrow are all listed as authors on HB 278. 

The prefiled bill says that by adding livestreaming and remote public access to all public court proceedings, the family court would comply with the state Constitution's demand for all courts to be open. The law would require the proceedings to be made public via live streams by Jan. 1, 2027.

The proposed legislation says that, at a judge's discretion, a minor's testimony can be taken in private. 

In custody hearings, the proposed changes would only allow courtrooms to be closed to the public if all parties agree in writing and a judge determines there is a good reason to keep the hearing secret. 

The funds to upgrade the current system to allow for the livestreaming will come from the Court Modernization Fund, the bill says.