Message from Chief District Court Judge Teresa H. Vincent

Dear Members of the Bar,

As you may know, our backlog of cases has grown exponentially due to COVID-19. By not issuing Orders for Arrest (except for good cause) or entering Failures to Appear, it has caused a significant rise in pending cases. In fact, the clerk is running out of space to store pending case files. Files marked as “Failed to Appear” are not stored with pending files, neither are they counted as pending cases for purposes of establishing the number of pending (backlog) cases. Consequently, effective Monday, March 1, 2021, I will have a clerk to classify files that remain at the end of the court session with a “failure to appear” status for defendants that are NOT out of jail on a secured bond.

Best regards,
Teresa H. Vincent
Chief District Court Judge Guilford
North Carolina Judicial Branch