Pat Ward and Sandra Bornn: Clerk of the Court

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In these jobs there is not a lot of room for error when you’re dealing with people’s lives – it’s an emotional setting for people.

Local 26 - Civil Service, Legal Component

If you ask Pat Ward and Sandra Bornn what they do for a living, their answers are clear: “We deal with a lot of paperwork.” But it’s not just paperwork to them, and that’s a good thing.

“We deal with important documents and we know what to do with them. We know how to fill them out, how to prepare them for judges and how to get them in the right hands,” Pat says. “In these jobs there is not a lot of room for error when you’re dealing with people’s lives – it’s an emotional setting for people,” Sandra adds.

Clerks of the Court sign court orders and they transcribe documents submitted by lawyers including making sure the information is correct and the document is properly formatted. Pat has worked as the civil motions coordinator for 17 years and Sandra is the Masters motions coordinator. This means they spend a lot of time as liaisons between judiciary and the legal profession. They also give direction to the public when dealing with the courts and are often key contacts for people who have found themselves dealing with the court system, during what is often an extremely difficult and complicated time in their lives.

Without employees like Sandra and Pat to ensure that court documents are filed in compliance with court rules and procedures, court proceedings could be postponed or delayed resulting in backlogs in the legal system.

“We have an excellent team, with a great back-up system,” says Sandra. “We have very strong working relationships with all the members of the team. Everyone makes a huge effort to keep a really low error rate.”

“I really feel committed to this job”, Pat says. “I have a great relationship with the judges, lawyers and public.”