Who appointed Berry Avant Edenfield?

President Jimmy Carter appointed Berry Avant Edenfield to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in 1978.

Was Berry Avant Edenfield appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Berry Avant Edenfield was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Berry Avant Edenfield's confirmation vote?

Berry Avant Edenfield was confirmed by voice vote on October 10, 1978. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Southern District of Georgia / Appointed 1978 / Served to 2015

Berry Avant Edenfield

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and confirmed by voice vote, Berry Avant Edenfield was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. He earned a law degree from University of Georgia School of Law in 1958. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1934–2015
Appointed by: Jimmy Carter, 1978
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Georgia 1956 · University of Georgia Law 1958
Succeeded: Alexander Atkinson Lawrence Jr.
Succeeded by: James Randal Hall

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1978	Southern District of Georgia succeeded Alexander Atkinson Lawrence Jr.	Carter (D)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

University of Georgia	B.B.A.	1956
University of Georgia School of Law	LL.B.	1958

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Edenfield was assigned 4,540 district-court cases (1985–2015). Median time from filing to termination: 182 days across 4,538 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas43%

Personal-injury torts15%

Civil rights12%

Contract11%

Social Security4%

Other federal statutes3%

Other12%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 195 of Edenfield’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 168 were affirmed, 20 reversed or vacated, and 7 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Edenfield authored 167 published opinions for the court (1980–2010). Most cited: Pitts Ex Rel. Pitts v. Seneca Sports, Inc. (124 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2004	Pitts Ex Rel. Pitts v. Seneca Sports, Inc.	321 F. Supp. 2d 1353	124
1995	Haysman v. Food Lion, Inc.	893 F. Supp. 1092	58
1994	Johnson v. General Motors Acceptance Corp. (In Re Johnson)	165 B.R. 524	49
1981	Blake v. Zant	513 F. Supp. 772	47
1990	United States Ex Rel. Stinson, Lyons, Gerlin & Bustamante, P.A. v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Inc.	755 F. Supp. 1055	46
1986	American Federation of Government Employees v. Weinberger	651 F. Supp. 726	42
1990	United States Ex Rel. Stinson, Lyons, Gerlin & Bustamante, P.A. v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Inc.	755 F. Supp. 1040	41
2000	In Re Unsolicited Letters to Federal Judges	120 F. Supp. 2d 1073	35
2000	Scoggins v. Arrow Trucking Co.	92 F. Supp. 2d 1372	35
1996	Patray v. Northwest Publishing, Inc.	931 F. Supp. 865	34
2000	Thyssen Elevator Co. v. Drayton-Bryan Co.	106 F. Supp. 2d 1355	32
1988	Sowers v. Kemira, Inc.	701 F. Supp. 809	30
1983	Bedingfield v. Bedingfield (In Re Bedingfield)	42 B.R. 641	30
1991	Sipple v. Atwood (In Re Atwood)	124 B.R. 402	29
1987	Claussen v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.	676 F. Supp. 1571	26

Showing the 15 most-cited of 167 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Berry Avant Edenfield?: President Jimmy Carter appointed Berry Avant Edenfield to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in 1978.
Was Berry Avant Edenfield appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Berry Avant Edenfield was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Berry Avant Edenfield's confirmation vote?: Berry Avant Edenfield was confirmed by voice vote on October 10, 1978. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Berry Avant Edenfield on?: Berry Avant Edenfield was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

36 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).