Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as a courtroom clerk and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.
A courtroom clerk works closely with attorneys, judges, bailiffs, and other partners to ensure the necessary documents for various proceedings are available when they are needed. He/she prepares court documents to be used during the trial and hearing processes.
Other responsibilities include recording court proceedings and maintain databases such as bail bonds, court proceedings notes, evidence, dispositions, and judgment. He/she also liaises with the judges, lawyers, and the public and is also responsible for reviewing all databases and case files for accuracy. Besides, he/she shares information on court procedures, schedules court dates, prepares a summons for the parties involved, and ensures there is a flow of records of the court proceedings.
Core Skills Required to be a Courtroom Clerk
Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.
Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.
A courtroom clerk should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.
Accuracy:
Accuracy refers to the closeness of a measured value to a known value or standard that is passed by the governing laws.
A Courtroom Clerk has to always be accurate with figures and data used and required in the office without any guesswork or estimations to facilitate precise and correct information in every department creating an authentic environment that will be respected by the workers.
Collaborating with others:
Collaborating is willingly working with one another and cooperating in whatever task one is assigned without behaving poorly or having an attitude change that hurts others.
A Courtroom Clerk is meant to collaborate with all workers and management both male and female without causing frustrations or sidelining any worker or delaying their promotion from any informal conversations where most decisions are often made.
Giving Feedback:
Giving Feedback is one of the most powerful tools to develop employees and improve performance through honest feedback of the work done best and areas that need improvement.
A Courtroom Clerk should be skilled in giving out both praise and criticism in a wise way to occasionally show workers where they need to improve and providing them with an observer's insight into the progress of their performance.
Deadlines - On time:
Deadlines - On time is the ability to prioritize the important tasks and setting up a plan on how to work on them first to deliver within the set period.
A Courtroom Clerk must have the art of managing deadlines by being able to prioritize the work that is set for scheduling to the workers according to how vital the projects are and how soon they need to be executed and submitted.
Time Management:
Time Management is the capacity for an individual to assign specific time slots to activities as per their importance and urgency to make the best possible use of time.
A Courtroom Clerk must schedule each task within a stipulated period for each employee and ensure all the tasks are completed promptly thus actually teaching the staff the value of time and how to utilize it for the interest of the business and their growth.
Research:
Research is the ability to stay updated on the latest trends in different fields as per your concern or the concern of your company or business.
A Courtroom Clerk ought to stay up to date on the latest trends in hiring, leading, retention, technology and much more by using the newest research methods that allow him to make better decisions and improve productivity.
Scheduling:
Scheduling is creating daily workflow charts that the employees are supposed to follow when working and submitting their projects.
A Courtroom Clerk must be dedicated to establishing and maintaining the schedule using either manual or technology methods to ensure it is always updated according to the tasks, the employees responsible or the time allocated to each task without fail or delay.
Training others:
Training is the ability to expand the knowledge base by learning new truths that are useful in the workplace.
A Courtroom Clerk needs to creatively schedule training for his employees in a focused manner that will allow the employee stay useful in the workplace and get new knowledge so that both the business and the worker not suffer from delays and work related stress.
Writing Reports and Proposals:
Writing Reports and Proposals is the ability to record business reports and plans for the company or project following the policies and procedures of the company.
A Courtroom Clerk should, therefore, emphasize the need and accuracy of these reports and plans to ensure they are delivered promptly, and the details within are accurate adhering to the company's policies and regulations without compromise.
Data Entry:
Data Entry is a skill to key in information from various sources as directed by the management while keeping to the policies and procedures of the company and ensuring they are accurate.
A Courtroom Clerk should prioritize hard skills over educational backgrounds when it comes to data entry because experience and familiarity with the common workplace software, attention to detail, confidentiality and databases is critical.
Hard Skills Required to be a Courtroom Clerk
Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.
Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.
A courtroom clerk should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.