Clerks of the court

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 628.

Staff attorneys

The distinction between staff attorneys and law clerks in that the latter work for an individual judge in that judge's chambers; the relationship is direct and personal, with the clerk responsible to no one except that judge. Central staff attorneys, on the other hand, work for the court as a whole. Central staff in appellate courts writes memoranda on cases for the use of the judges to whom those cases are assigned. In some courts they also draft proposed dispositions, usually short opinions in cases with issues that are not especially difficult or novel. Central staff attorneys often do the screening, a process of identifying those appeals that can appropriately be decided through truncated processes, usually involving the elimination of oral argument.

Adjuncts

Every court, whether trial or appellate, state or federal, has a clerk of the court who has a staff. The clerk's office is the place where lawyers and litigants file pleadings, motions, and other papers in the cases brought in the court. The clerk's office keeps a file on each case and maintains the docket book and the official record of the court's actions in all of its cases. All matters that come before the judges flow first through the clerk's office.

There is a type of judicial adjunct much older than law clerks and central staff attorneys. This is the “master” or “special master.” This quasi-judicial position has long been used in various ways by American trial courts, state and federal. A master's position is typically part time, filled by court appointment on an ad hoc basis for a specific purpose. For example, in a civil action involving an elaborate financial accounting the trial judge might designate a lawyer as a master to conduct the accounting and report the result to the court. In cases requiring the testimony of numerous widely scattered witnesses, the court could appoint a master to preside over the taking of the testimony and transmit that testimony to the court with recommendations for factual findings. Courts have also used masters in some complex cases; in public law litigation they assist in supervising implementations of decrees. Their actions are in the form of recommendations to the judges, who exercise the final decision-making authority.

Every state has a state court administrator. This is the top administrative official in the statewide system, usually responsible directly to the chief justice of the state. The administrator assists the chief justice in a wide array of matters such as developing the annual budget for the state's court system, supervising non-judicial personnel, maintaining statistics on the state's judicial business, overseeing court buildings, and supplying equipment for the courts.

In addition, each of the federal judicial circuits has a circuit executive who serves as an administrative assistant to the chief judge of the circuit in managing the circuit's business. Secretaries to judges are essential for the handling of the paper in the judges' chambers.