'kamui can you even talk about it-?' my sector is PUBLIC INFORMATION and therefor it is LEGAL i'm not going to break the law or anything lol.
anyways hello, i'm kamui, and instead of going to law school bc i bombed the LSAT i decided to work at a courthouse! feel free to toss anything at me, and if the above joke has you worried, i can always simply say i can't answer that question.
no, i cannot give you legal advice. that is illegal.
i work with the public, and directly/indirectly with higher ups (JA's, Judges, Attorneys, etc etc....haven't met our DA yet though....). i absolutely love my job though, there's so many opportunities to grow and shift trajectory aaaand im unionized, yeehaw!
anyways hello, i'm kamui, and instead of going to law school bc i bombed the LSAT i decided to work at a courthouse! feel free to toss anything at me, and if the above joke has you worried, i can always simply say i can't answer that question.
no, i cannot give you legal advice. that is illegal.
i work with the public, and directly/indirectly with higher ups (JA's, Judges, Attorneys, etc etc....haven't met our DA yet though....). i absolutely love my job though, there's so many opportunities to grow and shift trajectory aaaand im unionized, yeehaw!
I'm curious what your position at the courthouse is called, and more specifically what it entails. I imagine courthouses are different in different countries and can entail different things so I'm a little curious how it works where you live 
Min-ya wrote:
I'm curious what your position at the courthouse is called, and more specifically what it entails. I imagine courthouses are different in different countries and can entail different things so I'm a little curious how it works where you live
a CSA (there’s only so many acronyms lol), which is a court services assistant. This varies from dept to dept, I work in the civil side of things. So it’s usually filing and approving paperwork since most of the people I deal with are pro per (no attorneys, representing themselves). On occasion I have to make runs to the courtrooms themselves, this is usually to bring back paperwork the judges have signed, or deal with evidence.
Tbh even around here the work done varies from courthouse to courthouse, even if it’s the same county. One of our departments is the only one in the area so we take cases for certain claims for a half dozen other courthouses lol.
How much are you expected to concern yourself with security?
I know that while I've never been security, some of the places I've worked still have heightened security concerns and so require some extra training about things to watch for and protocols to follow (for example, when I was a janitor at the air port, if I found a bag sitting by itself, I was supposed to leave it alone and promptly inform security). And while working at a parking garage right by a courthouse, a police station, and a detention center, I've also occasionally found things that made me wonder if they were being used normally or if they were being used to sneak things into/out of those places, especially since it was pretty much only that location I'd find them at.
Not frequently, but just enough to notice.
I know that while I've never been security, some of the places I've worked still have heightened security concerns and so require some extra training about things to watch for and protocols to follow (for example, when I was a janitor at the air port, if I found a bag sitting by itself, I was supposed to leave it alone and promptly inform security). And while working at a parking garage right by a courthouse, a police station, and a detention center, I've also occasionally found things that made me wonder if they were being used normally or if they were being used to sneak things into/out of those places, especially since it was pretty much only that location I'd find them at.
Not frequently, but just enough to notice.
Zelphyr wrote:
How much are you expected to concern yourself with security?
I know that while I've never been security, some of the places I've worked still have heightened security concerns and so require some extra training about things to watch for and protocols to follow (for example, when I was a janitor at the air port, if I found a bag sitting by itself, I was supposed to leave it alone and promptly inform security). And while working at a parking garage right by a courthouse, a police station, and a detention center, I've also occasionally found things that made me wonder if they were being used normally or if they were being used to sneak things into/out of those places, especially since it was pretty much only that location I'd find them at. Not frequently, but just enough to notice.
I know that while I've never been security, some of the places I've worked still have heightened security concerns and so require some extra training about things to watch for and protocols to follow (for example, when I was a janitor at the air port, if I found a bag sitting by itself, I was supposed to leave it alone and promptly inform security). And while working at a parking garage right by a courthouse, a police station, and a detention center, I've also occasionally found things that made me wonder if they were being used normally or if they were being used to sneak things into/out of those places, especially since it was pretty much only that location I'd find them at.
Not frequently, but just enough to notice.a lot! i believe i techhhnically have (very low) security clearance. i had to get a standard bg check and submit my fingerprints lol. we have our own security guards and the city i work in happens to have a police station right by it, although...that may be normal, now that i think about it lol. lots of security training before and after i got hired, but usual things. all of our clerks have panic buttons though! which im so fearful of bumping it with my knee while seated, but they've said it's never happened before hnngh. because there's a lot of sensitive materials and sensitive...people (?) everyone is always vigilant, and the security is no nonsense (but kind!), which i appreciate. apparently my courthouse has a jail in the basement ???? which i was flabbergasted to find out.
supervisors are also very no nonsense, and ofc, so are our judges. i appreciate the support i have, if someone is copping an attitude with me my boss is quick to wave security over and have them escorted out. things like suspicious bags and stuff are handled by security too- one time in the elevator, i heard a guard talking on the radio and putting on gloves ready to inspect something, and they had to shut down security entirely lmaooo. i dont think anything came from it, so, yay for false alarms!
Hello fellow court employee! I actually thought about doing one of these myself for the exact same reason (different position though) but decided against it. 😂
I work in the criminal/traffic side of things rather than civil though, but have also spent a little time in probate (I'm in accounting), sounds like a pretty similar environment overall though!
Do you get a lot of frequent flyers? We have one here for example who has had numerous frivolous lawsuits tossed out, this person loves suing McDonald's for some reason. Or on the criminal side there's one who just can't stop violating protection orders (seriously like 30+ cases with multiple counts each at this point.) Any wacky regulars that you've encountered?
I work in the criminal/traffic side of things rather than civil though, but have also spent a little time in probate (I'm in accounting), sounds like a pretty similar environment overall though!
Do you get a lot of frequent flyers? We have one here for example who has had numerous frivolous lawsuits tossed out, this person loves suing McDonald's for some reason. Or on the criminal side there's one who just can't stop violating protection orders (seriously like 30+ cases with multiple counts each at this point.) Any wacky regulars that you've encountered?
the_only_andy wrote:
Hello fellow court employee! I actually thought about doing one of these myself for the exact same reason (different position though) but decided against it. 😂
I work in the criminal/traffic side of things rather than civil though, but have also spent a little time in probate (I'm in accounting), sounds like a pretty similar environment overall though!
Do you get a lot of frequent flyers? We have one here for example who has had numerous frivolous lawsuits tossed out, this person loves suing McDonald's for some reason. Or on the criminal side there's one who just can't stop violating protection orders (seriously like 30+ cases with multiple counts each at this point.) Any wacky regulars that you've encountered?
I work in the criminal/traffic side of things rather than civil though, but have also spent a little time in probate (I'm in accounting), sounds like a pretty similar environment overall though!
Do you get a lot of frequent flyers? We have one here for example who has had numerous frivolous lawsuits tossed out, this person loves suing McDonald's for some reason. Or on the criminal side there's one who just can't stop violating protection orders (seriously like 30+ cases with multiple counts each at this point.) Any wacky regulars that you've encountered?
Haha wowie! At my location ur literally on the other side (of the courthouse) lol.
Yes!! We do! We have someone who’s done so many cases that they’ve resorted to using…fake names, when filing? But dismiss them bc they try to get the other party to settle out of court. We can’t just…you know. Say no, lol, but they’re very unkind to our clerks so we don’t like working with them.
Some are so bad when we record their info we get a popup saying they’re basically on the ‘you sue too much’ list LMAOOO, which always makes me giggle. We have a few other regulars outside of that too- one we think his wife is a lawyer so he spends all day at the computers searching stuff up and writing it down/on the phone. He’s really nice though so we don’t care. There’s another that always asks for our supervisor (who doesn’t like dealing with him) but is super nosey. When I was covering when I first started, he kept asking me questions about my coworker and I was getting stressed out trying to keep these things vague, and another coworker next to me literally went ‘stop asking her those things,’ turned to me, and said ‘you don’t have to answer him’ so that was nice.
The protection order sounds stressful though uuurgy. Oh! And lots of loan repayment cases. It gets to the point where the secretary/legal counsel/whoever is filling these out just wait until they have a dozen cases ready and send them all in at once. It’s busy work but they always do everything correctly!
The "using fake names" thing brought to mind:
Are you involved in the name change process, and if so, what's that like? I know there's different processes in different places.
Here, some friends of mine took care of that at the same time as their marriage (I didn't realize judge-run civil services could be so sweet!); and back when I changed my name (for trans reasons), I remember that I had to go into the courthouse even though it was just to turn in paperwork, nothing that seems like being physically there should have been necessary.
But I don't know what that might look like on the back end.
Are you involved in the name change process, and if so, what's that like? I know there's different processes in different places.
Here, some friends of mine took care of that at the same time as their marriage (I didn't realize judge-run civil services could be so sweet!); and back when I changed my name (for trans reasons), I remember that I had to go into the courthouse even though it was just to turn in paperwork, nothing that seems like being physically there should have been necessary.
But I don't know what that might look like on the back end.
Zelphyr wrote:
The "using fake names" thing brought to mind:
Are you involved in the name change process, and if so, what's that like? I know there's different processes in different places.
Here, some friends of mine took care of that at the same time as their marriage (I didn't realize judge-run civil services could be so sweet!); and back when I changed my name (for trans reasons), I remember that I had to go into the courthouse even though it was just to turn in paperwork, nothing that seems like being physically there should have been necessary. But I don't know what that might look like on the back end.
Are you involved in the name change process, and if so, what's that like? I know there's different processes in different places.
Here, some friends of mine took care of that at the same time as their marriage (I didn't realize judge-run civil services could be so sweet!); and back when I changed my name (for trans reasons), I remember that I had to go into the courthouse even though it was just to turn in paperwork, nothing that seems like being physically there should have been necessary.
But I don't know what that might look like on the back end.I am not! That's a different civil part that I don't work in, lol. I've only witnessed it. If I had to guess, it's probably an authenticity thing?
we accept forms online too....eh i cant really speculate why they ask you to be in person, but i know where im at it has to be published in a newspaper so thats maybe why they ask you to come in person for my place, lol. anytime i've heard the clerks go through the process though, it doesn't seem to be that difficult compared to other things.