E E Good staff is key to the work of any law firm. Here Stacy Eggers Jr. and IV (left) pose with the team that keeps everything moving forward.Left to right: Stacy C. Eggers Jr., Stacy C. Eggers IV (four), Nicole Worley, Lou McLean, Pam Moretz, Bridgette McLean, Cindy Wallace and Renee Greene.
There were no district courts in North Carolina in 1950. Back then, each township had a justice of the peace, who was either elected by the people or appointed by the governor. “They decided cases involving misdemeanors which had a penalty of no greater than $50 or 30 days in jail,” he said. “They also handled civil cases up to $200.” These justices of the peace also conducted probable court hearings—and the system made it hard on defense attorneys. “If they didn’t find probable cause, they didn’t get paid for the case,” he said. “If the superior court threw out the case, they got half pay.” Thus creating considerable motivation among lawyers to find probable cause whenever possible. There were other challenges in this bygone system. Justices of the peace could hold court sessions wherever they chose, which often meant near (or even in) their homes. “I’ve tried cases in living rooms, on front porches and in a barn shed,” he said. Superior court only sat for four weeks in Boone each year. “There were two one-week sessions of criminal court, and two one-week sessions of civil court,” Eggers said. The prosecution was handled by a solicitor, who covered an area stretching all the way to the South Carolina line—and who did not have even a secretary to assist him. All this changed in 1968, when the present district court system was adopted. Since then, the legal system,
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and the number of cases, has grown exponentially.
“Little Stacy”
The law firm became a family affair in 1974, when Stacy Eggers III, became an attorney. “We called him ‘Little Stacy,’” his father recalled. “He was six feet, five inches tall!” A graduate of Wake Forest like his father, the younger Eggers soon became a fixture in the local courts. He inherited his dad’s sense of humor and quick wit, and added to it a great mastery of the bluegrass banjo. His career was cut tragically short when he died of sudden, massive heart attack in 1990.
A Third Eggers
By then, the firm had grown to include three members of the family. Stacy Eggers Jr.’s daughter, Rebecca Eggers-Gryder (known as Becca) graduated from Campbell and joined the firm in 1986. The firm’s name changed to Eggers, Eggers & Eggers that year. Even after Stacy III’s death, the name remained in his honor. For Becca Eggers-Gryder, her career started off with a bang. She had passed her bar exam, and was waiting for the official paper to arrive. “She checked the mail Monday, and it was there,” her father recalled. “Superior Court was in session, so Stacy and I went with her to have her sworn in as a member of the bar.” That moment took place, and then the two senior partners of the firm had a