Court Clerk
Court Clerk scores just 10/100 on this site's structural exposure measure — among the lowest structural readings reviewed anywhere on this site, reflecting how much of the job's daily content (docketing, filing, scheduling, answering routine procedural questions) overlaps with what document-management and case-management software already automates well.
We have not ingested real-world usage data for this occupation yet. We show a band only where genuine data exists, rather than estimate one.
What a court clerk actually does
Court clerks run the administrative backbone of a courthouse: maintaining the official case docket, filing and preserving pleadings, motions, orders, judgments, and exhibits, and processing the paperwork that keeps a case moving through the system. Day-to-day work includes scheduling hearings, collecting court fees and fines, issuing licenses and permits in some jurisdictions, and answering public inquiries about court procedure and case status.
But a court clerk's most consequential function isn't clerical in the ordinary sense — it's authority granted directly by statute. Under federal law (28 U. S. C. § 951) and equivalent state statutes, clerks of court have the legal power to administer oaths and affirmations to witnesses, jurors, and newly admitted attorneys, and to certify official copies of court records that carry legal weight in other proceedings, government agencies, and public transactions.
A certified copy of a judgment, a docket entry, or a case file bearing a clerk's seal is treated as an authoritative legal record precisely because a specific accountable person, not a database export, attested to it.
Why it reads this way
Court Clerk scores just 10/100 on this site's structural exposure measure — among the lowest structural readings reviewed anywhere on this site, reflecting how much of the job's daily content (docketing, filing, scheduling, answering routine procedural questions) overlaps with what document-management and case-management software already automates well.
What the score misses entirely is a specific, statutory grant of legal authority: federal law and equivalent state statutes give clerks of court the power to administer oaths to witnesses, jurors, and attorneys, and to certify official copies of court records as authentic legal documents.
That certification function is why a clerk's seal on a judgment or docket entry carries legal weight elsewhere — in another court, before a government agency, in a business transaction — precisely because it's the personal attestation of an accountable public officer, not an automated export.
AI-assisted case-management systems are genuinely reducing the volume of routine clerical work (BLS projects average, not above-average, growth for this occupation), but the oath-administering and record-certifying functions that give a clerk's paperwork its legal force remain tied to statute, not software.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$36,300–$73,820
Average: $48,700/yr
Range source: BLS OEWS wage data via O*NET OnLine (2025 release), SOC 43-4031.00 'Court, Municipal, and License Clerks'
Average source: BLS OEWS wage data for Court, Municipal, and License Clerks (43-4031.00) via O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data (Annual Median Wage)
Nearest jobs by score
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Court Clerk scores 10/100 — among the lowest structural readings reviewed on this site — reflecting how much of the daily docketing, filing, and scheduling work overlaps with case-management software. What the score misses: federal law (28 U.S.C. § 951) and equivalent state statutes grant clerks of court the personal legal power to administer oaths to witnesses, jurors, and attorneys, and to certify official copies of court records as authentic legal documents — a statutory attestation function, not a clerical one. AI case-management tools are genuinely reducing routine clerical volume (BLS projects only average employment growth), but the oath-administering and record-certifying functions that give a clerk's seal its legal force remain tied to a specific accountable officer under statute, as of 2026-08-12.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-12.
Sources (5)
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/43-4031.00
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/43-4031.00
- https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title28-section951
- https://www.timesolv.com/resources/blog/what-does-a-court-clerk-do/
- https://barneswalker.com/legal-glossary/c/clerk-of-courts-certificate/
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS OEWS wage data via O*NET OnLine (2025 release), SOC 43-4031.00 'Court, Municipal, and License Clerks'. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS OEWS wage data for Court, Municipal, and License Clerks (43-4031.00) via O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data (Annual Median Wage).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (43-4031.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: 3-4% (2024-2034), about as fast as the average for all occupations (BLS OOH / O*NET OnLine projections), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.