Atlanta, April 12, 2017 – Judge Meng H. Lim of the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit has been designated to serve in place of Justice Britt C. Grant in the appeal of Smith v. Northside Hospital, Inc. (S16G1463). The Supreme Court of Georgia will hear arguments in the case on April 17, 2017 during its 2:00 P.M. session. In this “open records” case, an attorney is appealing a Fulton County court ruling that the records he seeks are not public records and he is not entitled to them. In addition to hearing arguments, Judge Lim will participate in the Court’s decision.
Judge 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, Judge 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 Judge Lim was 9 years old, his family was sponsored as refugees to come to the United States by the Jewish Family & Career Services of Atlanta. They settled in rural Bremen, GA in 1982.
Speaking almost no English when he arrived, Judge 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. Judge Lim then entered Mercer University Law School with a scholarship and received his law degree in 1998.
After graduating from law school, Judge 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, Judge Lim went into solo practice, where he gained more than 15 years of trial experience, and was appointed the official Attorney for Haralson County in 2005.
Judge 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 recuse himself or herself from a particular case. 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.)