The judicial system is of great interest to those involved — lawyers, prosecutors and judges, primarily — but one might find the process a little mundane.

But the stories that come out are what anyone can enjoy, which was the case Wednesday at a joint luncheon meeting of the New Iberia Rotary Club, the New Iberia Optimist Club and the Cajun Kiwanis Club when the guest speaker was Louisiana Supreme Court Justice John L. Weimer.

A sort of robed raconteur, Weimer wove stories of some of his experiences as a judge in Louisiana’s legal system during an overview of the state’s high court.

Like the time he met Jesus while serving as a district judge in Lafourche Parish.

Weimer said a man appeared in court during a session. He asked the man his name. “Jesus” was his response. It wasn’t a first or last name, it was just “Jesus.” As the exchange ended and the judge asked “Jesus” to cooperate with some doctors the man would be sent to — and if cooperated in the court as well — everything would work out fine. But Weimer also said he thought meeting “Jesus” would be inevitable.

“… Every time I send someone to the parish, they come back and say they’ve found you, so I knew you were there,” Weimer told the crowd of about 50 people.

Then there was the time he met a new neighbor. Weimer said the neighbor didn’t appear too friendly. As he walked away from the meeting, the neighbor asked what the judge did for a living and he explained he was a district judge.

“ ‘Oh, that explains it,’” Weimer told the clubs’ members. “‘Every time we looked out the window, there was a police car at your house. … We didn’t know what kind of neighborhood we’d moved to.’”

Weimer’s father owned a gas station in Thibodaux, where the justice said he learned the “value of hard work” and the “virtue of honesty.” It is where he learned to treat people the same, no matter what their station in life.

The point of not believing one person is more important than another was driven home by Weimer’s story about bringing aid to people in Plaquemine Parish following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He and some of his fellow Thibodaux firefighters came up to some National Guardsmen and he presented his credentials for being a state Supreme Court Justice. The Guardsman didn’t seem impressed until he noticed his firefighter emblem on the justice’s shirt.

“‘You’re a fireman?’” Weimer said the guardsman asked. “I told him yes and he said, ‘Well come on in.’”

Weimer was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2001 to fill an unexpired term and was re-elected in 2002. He has been an appellate court judge, state district judge and professor of law at Nicholls State University while also having a private practice.