Description
Court clerks provide assistance to judges in a court institution. They handle enquiries on court proceedings and assist judges in various tasks such as performing legal research in preparation of cases or writing opinion pieces. They also contact parties involved in cases and brief judges and other court officials.
Duties
The duties of a court clerk typically include, but are not limited to:
- Documenting the receipt of legal documents, performing accounting and bookkeeping duties
- Keeping records of court appearances as well as answering official correspondence
- Collecting fees and preparing meeting agendas of court officials
- Issuing permits or licenses and recording licensing requests of the county, municipal and other agencies
- Researching and documenting information for judges and repairing draft agendas or bylaws for city councils or towns
Other titles
The following job titles also refer to court clerk:
senior court clerk
court administration officer
court usher
judicial assistant
judicial clerk
crown court clerk
bailiff
judiciary court clerk
judicial law clerk
Minimum qualifications
A high school diploma or equivalent is generally the minimum required to work as a court clerk.
ISCO skill level
ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:
- the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
- the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
- the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.
Court clerk is a Skill level 3 occupation.
Court clerk career path
Similar occupations
These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to court clerk.
case administrator
court administrative officer
court enforcement officer
legal assistant
legal administrative assistant
Long term prospects
These occupations require some skills and knowledge of court clerk. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of court clerk with a significant experience and/or extensive training.
court administrator
court jury coordinator
justice of the peace
prosecutor
supreme court judge
Essential knowledge and skills
Essential knowledge
This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of court clerk.
- Legal case management: The procedures of a legal case from opening to closing, such as the documentation that needs to be prepared and handled, the people involved in different stages of the case, and the requirements that need to be met before the case can be closed.
- Legal research: The methods and procedures of research in legal matters, such as the regulations, and different approaches to analyses and source gathering, and the knowledge on how to adapt the research methodology to a specific case to obtain the required information.
- Court procedures: The regulations which are in place during the investigation of a court case and during a court hearing, and of how these events occur.
Essential skills and competences
These skills are necessary for the role of court clerk.
- Send summons: Send summons for court hearings or other legal proceedings such as negotiations and investigative procedures to the parties involved, ensuring that they receive the summons and are fully informed of the procedures.
- Compile legal documents: Compile and collect legal documents from a specific case in order to aid an investigation or for a court hearing, in a manner compliant with legal regulations and ensuring records are properly maintained.
- Brief court officials: Brief court officials such as judges, barristers, and other representatives on the day’s events, the details of the cases scheduled for that day, attendance, and other matters pertaining court proceedings which are significant.
- Comply with legal regulations: Ensure you are properly informed of the legal regulations that govern a specific activity and adhere to its rules, policies and laws.
- Respond to enquiries: Respond to enquiries and requests for information from other organisations and members of the public.
- Record court procedures: Record all the information necessary for proper record maintenance during court hearings, such as the people present, the case, the evidence presented, the sentence made, and other important matters which were brought up during the hearing.
- Observe confidentiality: Observe the set of rules establishing the nondisclosure of information except to another authorised person.
- Assist judge: Assist the judge during court hearings to ensure the judge has access to all necessary case files, to help maintain order, see the judge is comfortable, and to ensure the hearing occurs without complications.
Optional knowledge and skills
Optional knowledge
This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of court clerk. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.
- Investigation research methods: The methods and strategies used to conduct police, government intelligence or military investigation research, as well as the research regulations specific to the operation.
- Legal terminology: The special terms and phrases used in the field of law.
- Civil process order: The legal procedures and standards that courts follow in civil lawsuits.
Optional skills and competences
These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of court clerk. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.
- Follow work schedule: Manage the sequence of activities in order to deliver completed work on agreed deadlines by following a work schedule.
- Show responsibility: Accept responsibility and be accountable for professional decisions of yourself or others as part of a job or one’s role.
- Inform of court sentence: Inform the involved parties as to what the official sentence is in a legal or court case, using the legal regulations and documents, to ensure that all parties are informed of the sentence.
- Use different communication channels: Make use of various types of communication channels such as verbal, handwritten, digital and telephonic communication with the purpose of constructing and sharing ideas or information.
- Keep task records: Organise and classify records of prepared reports and correspondence related to the performed work and progress records of tasks.
- Ensure sentence execution: Ensure, by contacting the parties involved and monitoring and handling progress and follow-up documentation, that legal sentences are followed as they were issued, such as ensuring that fines are paid, goods are confiscated or returned, and offenders are detained in the appropriate facility.
- Promote human rights: Promote and respect human rights and diversity in light of the physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs of autonomous individuals, taking into account their opinions, beliefs and values, and the international and national codes of ethics, as well as the ethical implications of healthcare provision, ensuring their right to privacy and honouring for the confidentiality of healthcare information.
- Ensure information security: Ensure that the information gathered during surveillance or investigations remains in the hands of those authorised to receive and use it, and does not fall into enemy or otherwise non-authorised individuals’ hands.
- Ensure equipment availability: Ensure that the necessary equipment is provided, ready and available for use before start of procedures.
- Manage administrative systems: Ensure administrative systems, processes and databases are efficient and well managed and give the sound basis to work together with the administrative officer/staff/professional.
- Document evidence: Document all evidence found on a crime scene, during an investigation, or when presented in a hearing, in a manner compliant with regulations, to ensure that no piece of evidence is left out of the case and that records are maintained.
- Write work-related reports: Compose work-related reports that support effective relationship management and a high standard of documentation and record keeping. Write and present results and conclusions in a clear and intelligible way so they are comprehensible to a non-expert audience.
- Check official documents: Check an individuals’ official documentation, such as driver’s licenses and identification, to ensure compliance with legal regulations, and to identify and assess individuals.
- Ensure proper document management: Guarantee that the tracking and recording standards and rules for document management are followed, such as ensuring that changes are identified, that documents remain readable and that obsoleted documents are not used.
- Manage accounts: Manage the accounts and financial activities of an organisation, supervising that all the documents are correctly maintained, that all the information and calculations are correct, and that proper decisions are being made.
- Maintain operational communications: Maintain communications between different departments of an organisation, between the staff, or during specific operations or missions, to ensure that the operation or mission is successful, or that the organisation functions smoothly.
ISCO group and title
3411 – Legal and related associate professionals
References
- Court clerk – ESCO
- What does a Court Clerk do? | Indeed.com
- Featured image: By English hinton – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0