Who is who in a federal case

Clerk of Court

The clerk of court is the office that maintains the docket, receives filings, issues summonses, and keeps the official record of every case.

Docket text is written by the clerk's office, which is why entries have a house style that varies between districts. The clerk also enters defaults, issues the judgment as a separate document, and transmits the record on appeal.

The clerk cannot give legal advice, but the office is the right call for procedural questions: whether a filing was received, what a local rule requires, and where old paper case files have been archived.

Local rules are the clerk's territory and they matter. Page limits, courtesy copy requirements, chambers procedures, and filing formats differ by district, and a filing rejected for a formatting error can miss a deadline. The clerk's office also handles jury administration, sealed filings, and record archiving, and it is the entity that certifies copies when another court or an agency needs an official version of a filing.