Courtroom Assistant

The City of Johnson City, Tennessee is accepting online applications for a Courtroom Assistant with the Juvenile Court. The employee performs difficult skilled clerical work involving complex problems and situations; records judicial proceedings and takes accurate notes of the proceedings. Efficient and accurate computer skills are essential. The work in this class involves extensive computer and clerical tasks which require independent work decisions and a high degree of accuracy. Employees in this class frequently develop and refine working procedures for themselves. The work involves attention to details and very frequent interaction with the public, attorneys, police department, and clients as well as familiarity with the local judicial system and its functions and procedures.

Essential Functions of Position:

• records judicial proceedings, and takes accurate notes of the proceedings;
• maintains an indexed log of recorded Court proceedings, maintains the taped recordings in chronological order, and retrieves audio tapes for transcription by a certified court reporter or for attorneys, as needed;
• assists in scheduling judicial hearings which are set from the courtroom on the docket of the Court, assists in notifying police officers, attorneys, and court employees of pending court dates;
• maintains a backup copy of the Court's dockets;
• prepares simple legal documents or Orders as instructed by the Judge;
• independently meets the public in often highly stressful circumstances;
• responsible for calling necessary attorneys and parties for each case to the courtroom, providing appropriate files to the Judge, and distributing the files to the appropriate location after each Court proceeding;
• enters restitution information, if ordered, into the Court's financial software program and furnishes restitution information to the Clerk at the conclusion of the hearing;
• enters court costs and fines, if ordered, into the Court's financial software program;
• enters data concerning social information and the case action in Court software (Softtec) at the conclusion of each Court proceeding;
• enters (file-stamps) Orders at the conclusion of hearings, copies the Orders for necessary parties, and enters the Orders in the Court's minute book;
• performs related tasks as required.
• file stamps and processes court documents as needed.
• assist other agencies and resources by printing and filing reports.
• responsible for all multimedia invitations for hearings and setting up phone participation.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Familiarity with court procedures and legal office practices; excellent computer skills; ability to operate transcribing equipment; thorough knowledge of business English, spelling, punctuation, grammatical construction; possession of an excellent vocabulary; ability to perform detailed duties independently, including the composition of legal orders, rules of probation, and other documents; ability to maintain and keep complex records and to prepare reports from such records; ability to deal well with the public in stressful circumstances as well as other attorneys, judges, and court clerks in a courteous and professional manner; professional appearance. Requires extended periods of sitting at a workstation or desk. Manual dexterity for data entry. Ability to speak clearly.

Acceptable Experience and Training: Completion of high school, including or supplemented by courses in bookkeeping, computer classes, and general business preferably the completion of college level course work in business administration, accounting or data processing concepts and considerable experience in performing responsible clerical work; or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities. Pre-employment physical, drug screening and background check required.

EEO/AA