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ADMINISTRATION OF CIVIL COURTS!
There is a great deal more to a court system than just judges conducting trials. Someone has :
a) To keep track of the cases,
b) To assign them to Judges,
c) To schedule the trials and hearings,
d) To Maintain custody of evidence,
e) Make sure that all the papers filed with the court can be found when needed,
f) And to manage all of the other administrative tasks without the system would come to
an immediate standstill.
When you consider that a typical urban court system disposes of tens of thousands of cases
in a year, and receives millions of pages of filings, it is obvious that the task of administering
the system is a major function in itself.
If the administrative functions of the court system seem uninteresting, consider this: To
have a case decided in your client’s favor, you first have to get it accepted; keeping cases
moving through the system is an important function of Lawyer’s assistants/paralegals.
Often, understanding the administrative functions of the court system and knowing how to
get a case scheduled for a particular action at the desired time can make a significant
difference in the overall outcome.
The administrative functions of courts are typically divided among several entities such as:
a) The Office of the clerk of the Court.
b) The office of the presiding judge,
c) The secretaries and staff of the individual judges
d) And in many court, a court administrator
CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE , 1908, LL.B. PART III
TOPIC: An Introduction to CPC, 26th of Sep,2016
Presented by: SM Zarkoon, Lecturer,
B.Sc. LL.B. LL.M. {Criminology & Law of Evidence}
University Law College Khojjak Road Quetta.
Email: lawyer.21st@yahoo.com Ph.# 081-2843053
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The function of the clerk of the court is to deal with paperwork. Every step in law suit
generates paper, all of which must be filed and kept available for future proceedings. All
papers pertaining to all cases flow through the clerk’s office. A separate chronological file is
kept for each case. The clerk’s office also has the power to issue routine court orders such
as summons and notices thus freeing Judges from such mundane tasks.
The Presiding judge has overall responsibility for the smooth and running of the court
system. The Presiding judge (District Judge) makes policy decisions about how the workload
is divided among all the judges under him.
In some court systems, each case is assigned to one judge, who conducts all proceedings in
that case. The benefits of this approach is that it allows the judge to become familiar with
the facts of the case as it progresses.
In other courts, cases are not permanently assigned to one judge; Instead judges are
assigned to function, so that motion will be heard by a motions of judges such as in case of
High courts, where petition moves around before various judges.
Each judge has his or her own office and staff, typically consisting at least of a secretary, a
bailiff, a court reporter, and one or more administrative clerks. The judge’s secretary and
clerical staff are important people in litigation because they are responsible for keeping the
judge’s calendar and scheduling most routine activity in the case. Also, rules of ethics
prohibit lawyers (and paralegals!) from engaging in ex parte communication with judge
about a pending lawsuit—That is, speaking to the judge without opposing attorney having
an opportunity to participate. Therefore, if you need to know whether the judge has made a
ruling on a particular issue, or whether a particular paper has been received, or if you need
to have a hearing scheduled, or if you have general questions about preferred practices in
this judge’s court, it is the judge’s secretary or clerk to whom you inquire.
