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Clerking During COVID
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:36 pm
by Chokenhauer
For anyone clerking right now, how has COVID affected your experiences? With the delta variant on the rise, I'm beginning to wonder if it will impact my experience at the district court level. Has it affected your opportunities to interact with parties/counsel or even witness trials?
Re: Clerking During COVID
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:06 pm
by Anonymous User
Yes, it absolutely will impact your clerkship.
Not having in person hearings sucked. I missed that immensely.
Our chambers was in office 100% of the time (by choice, it wasn't required by the judge). I highly advise you come into the office with some regularity; being fully remote will seriously diminish the experience.
ETA: most term clerks never interacted with counsel even pre-covid, so the continuation of that trend should not come as a surprise
Re: Clerking During COVID
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:43 pm
by Anonymous User
I haven't been clerking during covid, but based on practices in my courthouse, yes, very little is in person, and to the extent trials are even being held, you're not likely to be able to observe in person (though probably you will by video).
But I agree that clerks don't normally interact with the parties/counsel so that's no different.
Re: Clerking During COVID
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:10 am
by Chokenhauer
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:43 pm
I haven't been clerking during covid, but based on practices in my courthouse, yes, very little is in person, and to the extent trials are even being held, you're not likely to be able to observe in person (though probably you will by video).
But I agree that clerks don't normally interact with the parties/counsel so that's no different.
I am curious about whether I’ll see any trials at all. I’m not sure if it varies by chamber, but do clerks even get to sit in on those? There are several scheduled around the time that I start.
Re: Clerking During COVID
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:05 am
by Anonymous User
My experience was that yes, you sit in on trials, because your job is to assist the court and that includes responding to the judge’s comments/questions about legal matters that arise during trial. You give input on evidentiary or other legal issues as they arise.
Depending on how your chambers divides up work, you may only do this on cases assigned to you as opposed to a co-clerk, and depending on the nature of the case, you won’t be expected to attend every moment of trial, especially if it’s long - it’s not necessary and you will have other work to do. But trials are actually work for the clerks.
My judge was also pretty good about letting clerks observe at least parts of other interesting trials going on in the courthouse with other judges (like watching openings in a death penalty murder trial). But that will probably depend on the judge and workload and such.
Also chances are pretty good most of the trials currently scheduled for when you start won’t actually go then (unless your judge has already said, these cases are definitely going, which is possible of course).
Re: Clerking During COVID
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:20 pm
by Chokenhauer
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:05 am
My experience was that yes, you sit in on trials, because your job is to assist the court and that includes responding to the judge’s comments/questions about legal matters that arise during trial. You give input on evidentiary or other legal issues as they arise.
Depending on how your chambers divides up work, you may only do this on cases assigned to you as opposed to a co-clerk, and depending on the nature of the case, you won’t be expected to attend every moment of trial, especially if it’s long - it’s not necessary and you will have other work to do. But trials are actually work for the clerks.
My judge was also pretty good about letting clerks observe at least parts of other interesting trials going on in the courthouse with other judges (like watching openings in a death penalty murder trial). But that will probably depend on the judge and workload and such.
Also chances are pretty good most of the trials currently scheduled for when you start won’t actually go then (unless your judge has already said, these cases are definitely going, which is possible of course).
Thanks, I appreciate the write up. I hope I have a similar experience. Hopefully things transition to in-person over the next two years, but who knows.
Re: Clerking During COVID
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:04 pm
by Anonymous User
I am a clerk for a district court judge and our court is operating normally now.