Meggen Weeks of rural Union County has been appointed as the new Ringgold County magistrate, replacing longtime magistrate James Pedersen, who retired in November of last year.
Weeks grew up in the Lorimor area and graduated from East Union High School in 2007.
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in 2011 and her law degree from Drake University Law School in 2014.
For the past six years, Weeks has practiced law with the Wilson, Hanson, and Associates law firm in Lenox. As part of her practice there, she and Mathew Hanson share duties serving as city attorneys for 10 area small towns including Kellerton.
Continuing her practice in Lenox, she will travel to Mount Ayr each Wednesday to conduct magistrate court and will be on call other times as needs arise.
Weeks interviewed for the open magistrate position January 7 and was selected to fill the position the same day.
She officially began her magistrate duties January 20.
Besides growing up in the area and competing for East Union in track and softball, Weeks said she is familiar with Mount Ayr and Ringgold County through her experience in juvenile court and as a defense attorney in cases dealing with county residents, including appearances before magistrate Pedersen.
Weeks related that her interest in law stemmed from a dog attack she suffered as an eight-year-old in Lorimor.
She said the attack resulted in extended hospitalizations and multiple plastic surgeries.
Once attorneys got involved, she said, “it did not go well.”
“From that moment on,” she said, “I always wanted to help people find justice in the legal system.”
She brings the same attitude to her position as magistrate.
Even if a verdict doesn’t go their way, she said, “I still want people to feel a sense of justice.”
Weeks and her husband Jake Roan are parents of a daughter Madalynn, 4, and son Jackson, 1.
