DeKalb County has five new magistrate judges, a move that officials said “will further assist the court in continuing to reduce the backlog of cases accumulated during the pandemic.”
Chief Magistrate Berryl A. Anderson recently appointed the new judges, who represent a more than 20% increase over current bench staffing. They’ll work in part-time positions handling civil, ordinance, criminal and protective order matters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit all courts and all types of cases hard. In DeKalb, delays in code enforcement and animal control cases have drawn particular interest from residents.
Magistrate court also handles the county’s Tenant-Landlord Assistance Coalition, the program meant to prevent evictions by distributing federal rental assistance money to those in need.
The newly appointed judges include: Mirna Andrews, who has been an assistant district attorney in the county for 12 years; Elizabeth Guerrant, who has been a supervising attorney for the Atlanta Legal Aid Society; Tom Kemp, who has spent 20 years as a prosecutor; Tamara Williams, a private practice attorney for more than 11 years; and Teri Thompson, a 23-year criminal defense attorney.
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