Pender County experiencing lengthy delays in family court proceedings

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Civil cases in Pender County have been experiencing lengthy delays in trial hearings with many waiting months and even years for their cases to be heard by a judge. 

Ashley Bright is a Wilmington resident who previously lived in Pender County. 

Bright filed her child support dispute in March last year. The court recognized the case in August, but since then, she has yet to receive a date for a hearing. 

“So, then I kind of was like ‘is this normal for this area?’ especially as we got into the new year and I’m like ‘it’s been nearly six months, and my case still hasn’t been heard.’ In the meantime, I’m not receiving child support, and other things are going on in my case,” she said. 

Bright reached out to several local representatives, but after not receiving answers, she took her concerns to social media. 

“So I put it on Facebook, and it turns out this is common apparently for this area. Some people are waiting two to three years. There are people that can’t even settle their divorces to finalize property,” she said. 

John Neu has been waiting on a hearing for more than two years. Neu previously lived in Pender County and like Bright, recently moved to Wilmington.  

In January 2022, he and his wife separated, but they have yet to have a hearing in front of a judge to divide up their property.  

Neu said he is still responsible for the mortgage in the home he shared with his wife, is paying to live elsewhere, and has tens of thousands in legal debt. 

“And in the meantime, I was living at a campground for a year, because my ex-wife is still in the marital home, we’ve got a lot of equity tied up in there and it’s just a real struggle trying to make ends meet while we’re waiting to get in to finish everything off,” Neu said.  

Neu added that on Tuesday, he received a hearing date for June 25. WWAY reached out to Pender County Clerk of Court Elizabeth Craver about the scheduling delays. 

Craver said that her office does not handle scheduling for those hearings, but noted a Space Needs Assessment was conducted by the county in the fall of last year. 

“The results from that were that we do not have enough room in this courthouse, and that we need more space. So, we have to meet back with the county commissioners to determine what avenue we are going to do to remedy that so that we can get more space to be able to operate for the citizens in this county,” Craver said.