Helen Ginger Berrigan
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Helen Ginger Berrigan was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She earned a law degree from Louisiana State University Law School (now Paul M. Hebert Law Center) in 1977. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1948–2024
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Wisconsin 1969 · Louisiana State Law School (now Paul M. Hebert Law Center) 1977
- Succeeded
- Patrick Eugene Carr
- Succeeded by
- Wendy Baldwin Vitter
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Eastern District of Louisiana succeeded Patrick Eugene Carr | Clinton (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| University of Wisconsin | B.A. | 1969 |
| American University | M.A. | 1971 |
| Louisiana State University Law School (now Paul M. Hebert Law Center) | J.D. | 1977 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Berrigan was assigned 5,645 district-court cases (1982–2015). Median time from filing to termination: 240 days across 5,645 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 176 of Berrigan’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 130 were affirmed, 31 reversed or vacated, and 15 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Berrigan authored 74 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Boudreaux v. Banctec, Inc. (215 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Boudreaux v. Banctec, Inc. | 366 F. Supp. 2d 425 | 215 |
| 2008 | Collins v. Sanderson Farms, Inc. | 568 F. Supp. 2d 714 | 95 |
| 1996 | United States v. Davis | 912 F. Supp. 938 | 42 |
| 1997 | Pick v. American Medical Systems, Inc. | 958 F. Supp. 1151 | 34 |
| 2008 | Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Jones | 391 B.R. 577 | 33 |
| 2010 | United States v. Hardy | 762 F. Supp. 2d 849 | 31 |
| 1996 | Schenck v. Living Centers-East, Inc. | 917 F. Supp. 432 | 24 |
| 1995 | United States v. Davis | 904 F. Supp. 554 | 19 |
| 2009 | Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center v. St. Bernard Parish | 641 F. Supp. 2d 563 | 17 |
| 1997 | Brister v. All Star Chevrolet, Inc. | 986 F. Supp. 1003 | 15 |
| 2011 | Griffith v. Louisiana | 808 F. Supp. 2d 926 | 14 |
| 2001 | United States v. Davis | 132 F. Supp. 2d 455 | 12 |
| 2006 | Fidelity Homestead Ass'n v. Hanover Insurance | 458 F. Supp. 2d 276 | 11 |
| 2010 | Cao v. Federal Election Commission | 688 F. Supp. 2d 498 | 10 |
| 2002 | Vigil v. Sears National Bank | 205 F. Supp. 2d 566 | 10 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 74 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Helen Ginger Berrigan?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Helen Ginger Berrigan to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 1994.
- Was Helen Ginger Berrigan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Helen Ginger Berrigan was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Helen Ginger Berrigan's confirmation vote?
- Helen Ginger Berrigan was confirmed by voice vote on March 10, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Helen Ginger Berrigan on?
- Helen Ginger Berrigan was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
30 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).