Responsibilities

The following information from the Administrative Office of the Courts gives a brief description of the Clerk of Courts Role:

Clerks of Court

The voters of the county elect the clerk of superior court for a four-year term. Clerks are paid by the state, with their salaries scaled in accordance with the population of their counties. As one would expect, the clerk is responsible for all clerical and record-keeping functions of the superior court and district court.

However, the clerk also has numerous judicial functions: The clerk is judge of probate – that is, the clerk handles the probate of wills (proceedings to determine if a paper writing is a valid will) and the administration of estates of decedents, minors and incompetents.

The clerk also hears a variety of special proceedings such as adoptions, incompetency determinations and partitions of land and is empowered to issue arrest and search warrants and to exercise the same powers as a magistrate with respect to taking pleas of guilty to minor littering, traffic, wildlife, boating, marine fisheries, alcoholic beverage, state park recreation and worthless-check offenses.

Each clerk has a number of assistants and deputies. The number of assistants and deputies that each clerk may employ varies from county to county depending on the volume of business. Assistant and deputy clerks are paid on a salary schedule base fixed by the Administrative Office of the Courts based on education and years of service in the clerk’s office; the maximum and minimum salaries within that scale are fixed by the General Assembly.

Other responsibilities handled by the Clerk of Courts office includes the following:

Operates a unified record-keeping system of all civil actions, special proceedings, estates, criminal actions, juvenile actions, liens, lis pendens, and numerous other records required by law.

Certifies documents

Administers oaths to officials and to jurors and witnesses.

Is custodian of evidence in civil and criminal

Probate of wills, administration of decedent’s estates

Incompetency proceedings

Guardianships

Testamentary Trusts

Special Proceedings

Writs of Execution

Arrest and Bail

Claim and Delivery

Foreclosure of Tax Liens

Punishes criminal contempt and holds people in civil contempt

Determines Indigency

Conducts initial appearances and pretrial release

Waiver in extradition proceedings

Acts as an agent for the Division of Motor Vehicles to receive driver’s license that are required to be surrendered

Maintains judgment docket

Issues supeonas and civil summons

Nominates candidates for appointment as magistrates

Swearing in Davie County Sheriff Deputies