Lim gets to sit on Supreme Court for case

Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court Judge Meng Lim is still in his first term on the bench, but already can cross off a second milestone as he took on a temporary role on the state’s highest court in past weeks.

Lim said he was proud and appreciative of the opportunity to be able to sit on the State Supreme Court as a designated justice to help adjudicate a case in which one of the current members of the court needed to step aside.

“It was an interesting experience,” he said, mainly because it was a different type of legal environment than the run of the mill cases he sees in criminal and civil proceedings before his court in Polk and Haralson Counties on the Tallapoosa circuit.

Having the opportunity to hear the case was a milestone for him and his family, Lim said.

He added that if given the opportunity again, Lim would like to have a chance to sit on the court again.

Lim heard the case back in April to decide on a open records case that appeals a decision made in Fulton County Superior Court previously.

He couldn’t discuss the details of the case.

Lim, 45, made history nearly four years ago, when he was elected as Georgia’s first Asian American Superior Court Judge on July 22, 2014.

He began his first term of office on Jan. 1, 2015, and was appointed as a member of the Supreme Court Commission on Interpreters.

Born in Cambodia, Lim and his family managed to escape the oppressive regime of Pol Pot, fleeing war-torn Southeast Asia. They walked for a month through the jungle to cross the border into Thailand. When Lim was nine years old, his family was sponsored as refugees to come to the United States by the Jewish Family and Career Services of Atlanta. They settled in rural Bremen in 1982.

Speaking almost no English when he arrived, Lim rose to become the 1991 valedictorian of his high school. He was accepted by Emory University under the Georgia Governor’s Scholarship, where he obtained a B.A. in History in 1995.

Lim then entered Merc er University Law School with a scholarship and received his law degree in 1998.

After graduating from law school, Lim returned to Haralson County to start his legal career by clerking with the very same Superior Court to which he was eventually elected as judge.

He credits his study of jurisprudence with the court as one of the most important experiences in his legal career.

Upon completing his judicial clerkship, Lim went into solo practice, where he gained more than 15 years of trial experience, and was appointed the official Att orney f or Haralson County in 2005.

Lim is married to Angel Lim and is the proud father of Elizabeth and Nicholas Lim, and his stepson Justin Lo. He is a member of the Providence Baptist Church of Tallapoosa.

Designated judges are appointed when a justice must step aside from a particular case for a variety of reasons.

The Supreme Court of Georgia maintains a list of select judges from around the state and when the need arises, the Court appoints the next judge on the list.