Q&A: Ed Eldred discusses personal impacts of law, connecting with public

The Daily Tar Heel's Emily Dudash spoke with Ed Eldred, the Democratic candidate for the N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Seat 14, to discuss his candidacy and aspirations for the court. His Republican opponent is Valerie Zachary. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Tar Heel: What do you want voters to know about you?

Ed Eldred: I have an experience that no other judge and no other candidate, frankly, has dealing with the exact cases that the Court of Appeals deals with. So it's no exaggeration to say I will be bringing a perspective to the court that is lacking and that it needs.

DTH: What does justice mean to you?

EE: Justice means being in front of someone who listens to what you're saying, who knows what the law is and applies it in a fair manner.

DTH: Why are you the best candidate?

EE: I have been practicing law for almost 15 years. I represent primarily poor defense clients, which means I am court appointed to represent them, and I do criminal appeals and parental rights appeals. I do other appeals also, but that's most of what I do. 50 to 75 percent of [The Court of Appeals] caseload is indigent defense appeals, criminal appeals, [and] parental rights appeals. Nobody on the court has the kind of experience that I have handling the actual cases that the court is deciding. In addition to the appellate work I do, I also represent parents in Orange and Chatham County in the trial court. These are people trying to keep their families together, get their kids back and again, that's what the Court of Appeals does. I think it's important to have people there that have the perspective of “this is what's actually going on on the ground. This is what these cases actually mean.” 

DTH: As a judge on the Court of Appeals, what are some issues that would be important to you?

EE: The criminal justice system is important to me, as is the child protective services system, because that's what I've done, and I'm pretty familiar with the shortcomings of both systems, the strengths of both systems. [I’m] pretty aware of what an appeal means to the parties in those cases.

DTH: What are your primary goals if elected?

EE: One of the judge’s big jobs is to train the next generation of lawyers, and law clerks coming out of law school need good teachers, and that's where I got my start. And so certainly that's going to be one of my goals. The Court of Appeals work product is written opinions. I always tell people if you can't write, you can't do the job. So to put out well reasoned, readable opinions, well written, because a lot of the time, a judge will put out an opinion that sounds good to a judge or to a lawyer, but to the parties or to people on the street, they can't make heads or tails of it. So one of my goals is to write good opinions that people can read, that make sense, that also help the bar moving forward. 

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