Glossary
Court Clerk Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential court clerk terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key court clerk vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in court clerk training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Case number
- An identifier for a case.
- Continuance
- Postponing a hearing.
- Docket
- A schedule of court cases.
- E-filing
- Electronic filing.
- Fee waiver
- Excusing court fees.
- Filing
- Submitting documents.
- Judgment
- A court’s final decision.
- Minute order
- A record of court actions.
- Minutes
- A record of meetings.
- Oath
- A sworn promise.
- Ordinance
- A local law.
- Public records request
- A request for government records.
- Sealed record
- A record not open to the public.
- Subpoena
- An order to appear or produce documents.
- Warrant
- An order for arrest or search.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Court Clerk practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Court Clerk training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.