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I recently got a district court clerkship with a judge on senior status (I think he has the lowest possible caseload he can have to still get clerks) and the HR person said I would be starting at JS 11. It seems like this would be a mistake since I passed the bar in 2014 (became a members of the state bar where the district court is located in 2014) and have worked with law firms since September 2014. I would think this puts me at least at a JS 12, since a JS 11 is for someone with 0 years of legal work experience and without bar membership. Is there something I am missing here or has the HR person made a mistake? I thought JS rankings were pretty straightforward and determined solely based on years worked/bar membership but could budget or senior status or my qualifications (other than bar membership and work experience) be at play here? I was going to bring this up to the HR person (since it's a $12,000 pay difference) but wanted to check first to make sure I wasn't way off base.

Generally, yes, you would qualify for JS-12, but I have heard of some courts/judges just paying JS-11 to all clerks regardless. I think it's perfectly fair to raise it politely with HR - if it's the specific policy of that courthouse/judge they should be able to explain that, or it's possible the judges there normally hire new grads and it's an error.