Court clerk

In the courtroom, I’m the person sitting at the desk in front of the judge and facing the audience. In a nutshell, I am the secretary of the court. In the morning, I bring to the courtroom, all of the files of cases that are supposed to be heard on that day. Before the judge arrives, I prepare the session. I figure out who is present and who is absent among the people who have been summoned. To do this, I take the list of all the cases of the day, also called “the roll”.

I call the cases one by one off of the roll and ask the people involved to approach my desk. If there are witnesses summoned, I make sure that they are there. When people are ready for the hearing, I have two choices depending on the judge presiding that day. Some judges prefer that I immediately “swear in” the people that will testify. That means that I ask them to take an oath to tell the truth when testifying later before the judge. Other judges want to be present when the people take the oath.

When everyone present has come to see me at the front, I have a fairly good idea of what will happen at each hearing. I inform the judge of the situation and describe to her the state of the roll. For example, I might say: “The first three cases are ready to proceed, but the defendant in the fourth case is missing and, in the fifth case, one witness will be late.”

Once the scene is set, the judge enters the courtroom. Then we start that day’s session. The hearings happen one after the other. The parties involved in the first hearing are ready to begin.

During the hearing I note the details about what takes place in a document called the “minutes of the hearing” (also called “procès-verbal”). I write down who’s speaking, the name and address of each witness or party who testifies. I am also the one who receives any exhibits that are given to the court as evidence. I register each exhibit that’s received into the court’s file, meaning that I number them so that they can be located with ease later on.

After the hearing, I finalize the minutes of the hearing. I make sure that the courtroom is empty and I bring all the files to my office so that we can process them and eventually reclassify them in the filing room until the next step.