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Court Clerk's Office
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Blaine County, Oklahoma
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Deputies:
Mary Boden, Christy Matli,
Laura Waugh, Melissa Justice
First Deputy:
Virginia EdsallCourt Clerk:
Cynthia Scheffler
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The court clerk has the primary responsibility to record,
file, and maintain as permanent records the proceedings of the
district court. The court clerk and ones appointed deputies
work with the different divisions of the district court which
are as follows:
 Civil - damage equity, writs (court order) and civil cases, injunctions and garnishments.
Criminal - felony and misdemeanor cases, and traffic violations.
Probate - guardianship, mental health, adoption, and other judicial determination cases.
Juvenile - matters of the children's court.
Domestic Relations - divorces, separations, annulments, emergency protective orders, income assignments, and paternity cases.
Small Claims - cases involving claims or damages under $2500, including garnishments, recovery of
personal property, and recovery of money based on a contract or tort.
As a means of identifying a court proceeding, the court clerk is required to maintain various books such as an appearance
docket, a plaintiff and defendant docket, and a journal
docket. Duplicates of the documents filed in a case and all the
documents signed by the judge are entered in the journal docket.
Synopsis of the court proceedings are prepared by the court clerk
or a deputy within the court clerk's office and
recorded in the appearance docket. Word-for-word transcripts
are prepared by the court reporter and filed with
the court clerk. All the court proceedings are public information
except those related to juvenile, guardianship, adoption and
mental health cases. Officers of the court and other authorized
court personnel are mainly the only persons allowed to
remove records or case files from the court clerk's office. For
transcripts of court cases open to the public, copies are obtained from the court reporter. The court reporter is a state
employee assigned to the district court.
The court clerk also functions as a processor and licensing
agent. For example, the court clerk also issues process
papers such as warrants or writs (orders from a court) to be
served by the county sheriff or another authorized party. As
a licensing agent, the court clerk issues marriage licenses, passports, notary certifications, beer and pool hall licenses,
and private process server licenses.
Fees for licenses and payments for court costs are paid to
the court clerk. These payments are properly recorded and deposited by the court clerk into the court fund. Monies from
the court fund are identified for distribution by the court
clerk, in accordance with the law, to the appropriate units of
county and state government.
The court clerk is mainly accountable to the Court
Administrator's Office which is a unit of state government
and the Okahoma Supreme Court. For statewide uniformity, every court clerk uses forms and follows procedures prescribed
by the Court Administrator's Office, the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the State Auditor and Inspector.
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