I recently attended the Wake County Bar Association/Tenth Judicial Bar Breakfast Discussion Series at Campbell Law School, and I am so glad I did. The members of the Office of the Wake County Clerk of the Superior Court gave a wonderful presentation including tips on everything from default judgments to foreclosures. I learned a lot about procedure in diverse areas of the law, but the most valuable piece of information I gleaned from the presentation was: when in doubt about the proper procedure, call the Clerk’s office.
Lawyers are often hesitant to ask for help, especially when the subject matter is something they feel like they should know, and truthfully, some Clerk’s offices are not particularly helpful. The lawyers in Wake County are fortunate. Not only is our Clerk’s office very knowledgeable in a huge array of legal matters, we have a Clerk’s office that WANTS us to call and ask for assistance with procedural matters. They would rather us ask then try to muddle our way through and get it wrong. This is an amazing perk, especially for those venturing into a new area of the law. So next time a procedural issue has you befuddled, remember, help is only a phone call away.