Meredith Edwards, who will step down from her current post as Alamance County’s clerk of superior court on December 31 after winning a seat on the county’s district court bench in the General Election, always dreamed of becoming a lawyer but never envisioned ascending to the highest ranks of the legal profession.
Next month, Edwards will be sworn into office as Alamance County’s fifth district court judge, becoming the second female judge, and the first Republican female judge, in the county’s history. Democrat Kathryn Whitaker (“Katie”) Overby became the county’s first female judge with her appointment and subsequent election to the district court bench in 2012.
“I never thought I’d have the opportunity,” Edwards said in a recent interview with The Alamance News.
“I envisioned I would retire as the clerk of court.” At the same time, she describes her elevation to the district court bench as bittersweet. “This is a hard transition for me, because I love the clerk’s office so much. I love the men and women I work with.”
Now 43, Edwards says she personally can’t remember her earliest aspirations, growing up in the Union Grove Community in southern Orange County, not far from the Maple View dairy farm. While both of her parents, now retired, were public school teachers for the Orange County and Durham public school systems, Edwards says she never felt called to follow in their footsteps.
“My mom says she first remembers me talking about wanting to be a lawyer when I was in the third grade,” she recalls in a recent interview with. “It’s probably because Carl Fox came to visit my third grade class at the time.” Then-district attorney for Orange County, Fox later became a superior court judge for the judicial district that serves Orange and Chatham counties.
What stuck with her was Fox’s dedication to public service and his desire to make his community better, Edwards recalls. Fox retired in 2020 from his 42-year career with the judicial branch, beginning with his appointment as an ADA in 1978 as an assistant D.A., followed by his election and reelection as D.A. and superior court judge. “He really loved what he did,” Edwards tells the newspaper. “He’s still practicing, in private practice now.”
Edwards (then-known by her maiden name, Tuck) would go on to earn dual bachelor’s degrees in American history and political science from Meredith College, where she also minored in criminal justice. In 2007, Fox swore Edwards in as an attorney following her graduation from the law school at Carolina.
Edwards’ own career has charted a similar trajectory. Starting in 2007, she served as an assistant D.A. for Alamance County for 11 years, until she won her first four-year term as clerk of court in November 2018, beating Democrat Jeff Allen with 54.97 percent of the vote; she first beat Republicans Brandon Ector and then-clerk David Barber with 55.73 percent of the vote in the May 2018 primary. (Barber was subsequently elected as the county’s Register of Deeds in 2020 and reelected to a second term this year.) In November 2022, Edwards ran unopposed and, according to the State Board of Elections, received 100 percent of the vote to win a second term as clerk.
Resident superior court judge Andy Hanford accepting applications for clerk of court candidates to fill remaining two years of Edwards’ term: https://alamancenews.com/superior-court-judge-is-accepting-submissions-for-new-clerk-of-court/
She first crossed paths with her future husband, Ben Edwards, a police officer, in the J.B. Allen, Jr. Criminal Court House when she was an assistant D.A. for the Alamance County district attorney’s office.
“My children say, ‘That’s when daddy got heart eyes,’” Edwards recalls, referring to the cartoon emoji used to convey love in text messaging. Ben made up a reason to talk to her, but love was not in the air, at least not at first, she says with a laugh, adding, “He grew on me.”
The couple started out as friends, but after noticing how Ben was always at her side – for “a couple of years” – her parents, Tommy and Lorraine Tuck, pointed out, “‘Y’all are dating,’” says Edwards, who initially rebuffed that description. The couple will celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary next month.
A strong work ethic
Following her election in 2018, Edwards quickly became a constant fixture inside Alamance County’s Historic Court House, working around the clock, including while pregnant with twin daughters, as she sought ways to improve operations and cross-train employees in each of the divisions within the clerk of court’s office.
“[I was always thinking about] what next thing could we do to be more organized, what next thing could we do to be more in compliance with the statutes and the rules of record-keeping,” Edwards elaborates.
“What’s important to me is doing a good job. That’s what I want people to know about me.”
North Carolina’s 100 clerks of superior court handle all of the clerical and record-keeping functions for the civil and criminal district and superior courts within their counties; in other words, every document filed in a county court system has passed through the hands of a deputy clerk of court.
Edwards and her 99 counterparts across the state also preside as ex officio judges of probate, meaning they have jurisdiction over the administration, settlement, and distribution of estates, as well as guardianships, divorces, adoptions, foreclosures, and other civil proceedings.
Meanwhile, not long after she won her second term in 2022, Edwards and her 52 assistants in the clerk’s office learned they would implement the mammoth, statewide online court filing system (eCourts) throughout Alamance County’s court system by April 29 of this year. The eCourts system is intended to provide the public with nearly instantaneous online access to court documents, and allow new cases to be filed online, in all 100 N.C. counties by the summer of 2025.
“We first started hearing about it in 2022 but didn’t find out it would impact us locally until December 2023,” Edwards tells the newspaper. The April 2024 deadline for implementation, given by state court officials, set off mandatory round-the-clock training sessions for Edwards, her staff in the clerk’s office, and virtually every other Alamance County court employee.
Since then, it’s been easier to track down Edwards inside one of the county’s courtrooms, rather than her own office at the Historic Court House, as she has been providing hands-on assistance to judges, prosecutors, and clerks as they learn to navigate eCourts and work around bugs in the system. “It’s been a long year,” she concedes. “We are working toward that [seamless transition], and we are improving our processes.”
A new approach to repeat offenses
As the county’s fifth judge, Edwards will preside over a range of civil and criminal cases in district court. She hopes to bring a fresh perspective that could reduce recidivism and address underlying problems, such as mental illness and substance abuse that are often linked to low-level criminal offenses.
“I always want to find ways we can improve things – understand how we interact with litigants [and how we address low-level criminal defendants through] trauma-informed practices,” Edwards explains. “There’s a new perspective in 2024 about how judges do their jobs, being aware of what things people have experienced when they come into courtrooms and what they are experiencing, and prioritizing awareness of that.
“This is particularly impactful in district court, when you’re dealing with lower-level crimes, but I don’t think these things need to impact accountability,” says Edwards. “This work is already going on in Alamance County. We are starting our recovery courts in January. We are addressing H and I class felonies [which include offenses such as assault by strangulation, breaking and entering buildings and/or motor vehicles, possessing stolen property, and forgery] in district court.”
This shift stems from a task force established by North Carolina chief justice Paul Newby, called the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) task force. The only one of the state’s 100 clerks of court to serve on the task force, Edwards says, “This is groundbreaking work. I’m not aware of another state that has this type of initiative led by their chief justice…a bipartisan effort to approach criminal justice in a new way.” In addition to Newby’s guidance, the task force was overseen by Ben David, a Democrat who retired as the D.A. for New Hanover and Pender counties in September.
“Ultimately, we want to know why the same people are coming back over and over again, and what can we do differently,” Edwards tells the newspaper. “I think it’s part and parcel of the issues in our communities across North Carolina: substance abuse and substance use, mental health and the lack thereof, and how they affect children and families.”
Outside the office, juggling a demanding, high-profile job with managing a household and raising four children, ages five to 11, is a “team sport” in the Edwards’ home.
Though free time and guilty pleasures are distant memories, Edwards says, “now that our children are out of diapers,” she and husband Ben planted their first garden this year, picking the last of their bell peppers this past weekend. “My parents garden all year; they have spring, summer, and fall gardens. I’m accustomed to growing what you eat; that’s how I grew up.”
The family is also active with the non-denominational Grace Chapel in Burlington.
“It’s hard to be a law enforcement spouse,” the newly-elected district court judge acknowledges, “and there was a period when I was at home alone, doing all the things [to run a household and raise kids]. Ben is very supportive. Our mothers are also willing to help if there’s a sick kid, a pickup from ballet, or making supper. I’m very blessed.”
See upcoming edition next week (Nov. 28) for stories on two other new judges: Craig Turner and Bryan Ray.
