Journalist's Guide

District
Appellate
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Glossary

Contents

uscourts.gov

Judges | Clerks | Court Officers | Attorney | Counsel

Clerks

Each federal judicial district has a clerk of court whose staff, among other duties, accepts papers for filing and moves those papers from the clerk's office to judges' chambers. The clerk's office serves as the court's central nervous system – all matters must flow through it, and the clerk of court serves as custodian of the record in every case. The staff members you will deal with at the front counter of the clerk's office are generally referred to as docket clerks. Most districts with multiple divisions also have two or more division managers, who supervise clerk's office staff in a given courthouse. Because they function primarily as supervisors and managers, you may rarely see the clerk of court or division manager in a courtroom.

In each judge's courtroom, generally seated in front of the judge's bench, is the courtroom deputy clerk. In addition to being the person primarily responsible for maintaining the case files, the courtroom deputy clerk calls cases at the beginning of a hearing, swears in witnesses during trials, and receives exhibits introduced into evidence at trial. The courtroom deputy clerk is a member of the clerk's office staff, not a member of the judge's personal staff, and should not be confused with the judge's law clerks, who generally also sit near the judge's bench during hearings. It is a courtroom deputy clerk who generally announces the arrival of the judge in the courtroom, sometimes by saying, "All rise. Oyez, oyez, oyez . . ."

This page is maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts. The purpose of this site is to function as a clearinghouse for information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government.

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