The County Court Clerk
Laying the Foundation for Foreclosure Cases
This is the first of many short stories about public servants in America. It is Civic Way’s hope that these stories will help readers appreciate the importance of state and local government, and the everyday challenges facing public servants. The authors, Bruce Anderson and Bob Melville, have decades of management consulting experience working with governmental agencies across the US.
Introducing the Job
The Clerk of Courts office maintains legal records for a wide variety of criminal and civil matters. The clerks search, locate and assemble files for judicial hearings. Without these files, it would be impossible for judges and magistrates to properly decide the criminal and civil cases assigned to them. While many judicial records have been digitized and many processes automated, physical records remain indispensable for many cases.
Property foreclosures are one type of civil case. There aren’t a lot of them (foreclosures rarely affect more than one percent of all housing units), but they can change a person’s life forever. When a property owner misses mortgage payments, the lender may seize control of the property through foreclosure. Every foreclosure must first be approved by a judge or magistrate, after reviewing evidence prepared by a county court clerk.
One Public Servant’s Story
Every morning, he left his home at the same time. Early. This time of year, it was still dark. As he hurried toward the bus stop, he noticed the streetlights and the glowing windows of a few homes in his neighborhood. He liked being the early bird.
As the cold air unlocked his senses, Carl’s thoughts rushed in. He felt grateful. He liked his life. A good wife and three accomplished children. Grandchildren within a 30-minute drive. Good neighbors who took care of their homes and watched out for one another. A heavily-wooded community with wide sidewalks and a large public park near his home.
He didn’t think he would, but Carl even liked his job. After almost 40 years as a commercial artist, he took a job with the County Clerk of Courts. When he started ten years ago, the office seemed slow, even musty. But, over time, he had come to appreciate the simple steadiness of the work.
The job had its drawbacks. A few clerks seemed indifferent about the work. They slow-walked everything and never volunteered. They whined about their jobs, but received precisely the same pay. Every time Carl saw them idling around the office, he wished something would or could be done. But, he knew they were lifers, with little to fear from this administration or the next.
Carl learned to take these frustrations in stride. The job had a lot of variety. Not just the cases that came across his desk, but the people. Bankers, lawyers, accountants, appraisers and citizens. And, while he was apprehensive about being a civil servant when he first started, he now saw the office and the work it did in a different light. In any event, the days passed quickly.
Sure, he spent most of his day—head down—working the files in front of him. Making sure every file was well-organized and every record correct. But, more than anything else, Carl enjoyed the occasional chance to help people. In fact, nothing satisfied him more than those times when he could help citizens navigate the system. For some citizens, a foreclosure clerk was their last resort, the one person who could save their home and help get them back on their feet.
As he arrived at the bus stop, he was confident the bus would be on time. It was cold, but the roads were dry. Sure enough, the bus came, he climbed aboard, greeted the driver and took a seat. He looked out the window, gazed at the downtown skyline and began his 45-minute bus ride downtown.
Carl pulled his tablet out to read the news, but quickly set it aside. He started thinking about the day ahead. Today would be different. There would be several hours of routine file work, but it would be interrupted by two mid-morning appointments. Both could be last resort opportunity.
Carl arrived at his building a few minutes early. Using his coded badge, he entered through the employee entrance. He climbed the stairs to his second-floor office where he signed into the timekeeping system. After getting a cup of coffee, Carl sat down at his workstation and resumed the prior day’s work, preparing two files for court hearings scheduled later that day.
At 9:45 am, the time of his first appointment, Carl noticed a familiar face approaching. Carl recognized him as a man who represented many landlords, the same man who repeatedly sought hearing extensions for one of his cases. Before the man uttered a word, Carl told him he had an appointment with a Mr. Thompson. The man nodded his head, grinned and told Carl that he was Mr. Thompson.
Carl was annoyed by the deception, but respected the man’s persistence. The last time they spoke, Carl told the man that he could not grant an extension for the case, that, unless the matter was resolved with the mortgage holder, the hearing would take place as scheduled. This time, the man offered the same excuses he did the last time, almost word-for-word, but with more feeling.
Carl listened patiently until the man finished his plea. Carl then politely reminded the man that only a magistrate could help him. That he only had two options—convince the magistrate to grant an extension or attend the hearing. Carl told the man, “My advice for you is the same as before, assume that the hearing will not be extended and prepare for it as best as you can.”
After glaring in silence at Carl for a few moments, the man walked away, muttering, “Thanks for nothing. Another lazy bureaucrat who’s forgotten who he works for.”
Carl grimaced, gently shook his head and began to mechanically sort through the file requests for the next hearings. Carl looked up from his desk and watched Mr. Thompson walk quietly past the sheriff deputy stationed near the receptionist and disappear behind the elevator doors. He returned to his files.
At 11 am, Carl looked up from his work again. He saw a young lady visibly upset sitting in the reception area. His phone rang and he answered. It was one of the magistrate’s assistants. After completing the call, he looked up and saw the young woman in front of his desk. She introduced herself to Carl as Teresa Walker. Carl asked her to take a seat next to his desk.
Teresa began her story in a quivering voice. Until recently, she had lived in a single-family home in the city. Without her knowledge, the bank holding the mortgage foreclosed on the property. Upon returning home from a family visit, she found that she had been evicted, without any notice of the foreclosure or eviction. Her eyes welled up and her hands began to tremble.
Carl interrupted, “If you like, take a moment.” He watched Teresa gather yourself and asked her, “Are you the property owner?” Teresa responded, “No, but that’s the problem.”
He asked Teresa if she had brought any documents. She quickly pulled a thick folder from her purse and handed it to Carl, adding, “I hope you can help me.” She started to tear up again, but dried her eyes, removed her glasses from her purse and put them on.
Carl looked sympathetically at Teresa. “I think we have a small conference room available. It would give us more privacy and a chance to figure this out.” Carl escorted her to the conference room, closed the door behind them and spread the folder’s contents on the table.
As Carl scanned the papers, Teresa resumed her story. When evicted, she was in the eleventh month of a one-year rental agreement. She had paid the owner the required rent every month and always on time. The documents confirmed Teresa’s account.
Teresa’s nightmare began with an out-of-state trip to see family. When she returned, she found a lockbox on her front door. When her key didn’t work, she started pounding on the door. She peered into a window, but the house looked empty.
One of her neighbors came over. He told her that a few days earlier, he saw some men, including a sheriff’s deputy, at her house. Her belongings were on the driveway. Furniture, appliances, clothing, food, knickknacks, everything. The deputy and another man told him that the house had gone through foreclosure. The neighbor added that he had not seen the owner of the house for months.
Carl asked, “What happened to your stuff?”
Teresa said, “I’m not sure, yet. My neighbor took the perishables to a food bank. The next day, after he saw strangers in the yard, he moved the remaining items into his garage. Several items are probably gone, including my TV and a painting. Still, I was lucky that my neighbor did what he did.”
Teresa continued. “My biggest problem is finding a place to live. Last night, and most likely tonight, I will be staying at a motel outside the city. Next week, who knows?”
After waiting to make sure Teresa was finished, Carl looked at her with resolve and said, “Let’s see what we can do.” They returned to Carl’s workstation.
Carl accessed the records online. He found the foreclosure and eviction history as well as the prior owner’s name and address. The prior owner had claimed the house as his primary residence and made no mortgage payments for at least 12 months. Worse, the prior owner had pocketed Teresa’s rental checks without telling the bank that a renter occupied the house.
A plan began to materialize. Carl printed copies of the foreclosure documents for Teresa. He called one of his contacts at the bank that now owned the property and walked her through the case. He suggested that the bank should rent the property, at least for a while. His bank contact said that the bank planned to sell the property, but, after several minutes, she agreed to consider leasing the house to Teresa.
Carl thanked his bank contact and asked if he could put her on hold. He quickly asked Teresa if she could go to the bank later that day. Teresa nodded. Carl then secured a 3:30 pm appointment for Teresa, thanked his bank contact and hung up.
Carl turned to Teresa. “There is no guarantee, but I think the bank may be willing to rent the house to you. They own a lot of foreclosure properties and renting one for a few months or so won’t hurt them. Besides, given your reliability, they will see there is little risk for them.”
Carl called one of his contacts at the Prosecutor’s Office. After describing the case, Carl asked the prosecutor if there might be a fraud case against the prior owner. The prosecutor suggested that Teresa stop by his office so he could determine if criminal charges were merited and perhaps refer her to a private attorney to pursue a civil case. Carl put Teresa on the line so she could schedule an appointment later that week with the prosecutor.
Carl noticed the office clock. He had been meeting with Teresa for over an hour. As she rose from the chair next to his workstation, she said, “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done. You really listened to me. More important, you restored my faith in people.”
Carl sat back in his chair. “I guess you’ve seen what we see here every day. The good and the ugly. Your neighbor’s kindness and your landlord’s callousness. I’m just glad that we were able to help you. If you get a chance, let me know how it works out.” Teresa said goodbye and made her way to the elevator.
It was lunchtime and the sunlight lured Carl outside. After leaving the building, he stopped to order a takeout meal from his favorite deli. He ate his meal and drank his soda at the small park across the street. With a little time to spare, he walked to the downtown library and read a few newspapers. He looked at his watch again. Time to get back.
Upon returning to work, Carl met with some of the other clerks in the conference room. Every week, they tried to get together to share recent cases and issues. This time, they talked about the anticipated post-holiday surge in foreclosure cases. Typically, they experienced a slowdown just before the holidays, partly due to holiday vacations, but mostly due to the desire of bankers and lawyers to avoid the appearance of being heartless and cruel. The New Year usually brought a wave of new cases.
After the informal team meeting, Carl had walk-in duties, handling inquiries from unscheduled visitors. Mostly simple questions from one-time customers, but a few sad stories about losing a home or job.
In years past, he saw more law firm representatives or runners requesting copies of documents they needed. As more records were digitized, the volume of runners—mostly retirees—slowed considerably.
The office handles two types of documents—digitized and paper. For newer foreclosure cases, the documents are scanned and digitized, making them easy to retrieve. For older cases, documents remain in their original paper format in the archives. The old documents can be decomposed or illegible. Sometimes, they aren’t even where they’re supposed to be.
The office’s multi-year digitization project was going well. At least weekly, every clerk took records to the project team for scanning and indexing. So far, virtually all of the records submitted by Carl were accepted by the project team for scanning. Carl knew that, if the records he submitted were illegible or fragile, they would be rejected. He took pride in his ability to find scan-worthy records.
Carl returned to his workstation, only to encounter another problem. One of the files he was preparing for a magistrate had incorrect address data. He would have to find the address in the archives of the courthouse basement, known as the Dungeon, assuming he could find the correct file. Before leaving his desk, he checked the online index to find the file. The clerks often joked that the location of some files is known “only to God.” This could be one of those files.
The Dungeon is a catacomb with high ceilings, concrete floors and long ladders. Countless boxes and files, only some of them in the right place. Carl knew he would be lucky to find the file right away, precisely where it was supposed to be. After failing to find the file where the online index indicated it would be, he realized that he would not be leaving the Dungeon just yet.
After another hour mining racks and following his instincts, he found the file and address. Out of curiosity, he scanned it for clues as to its misplacement. He found little of interest except a thirty-year old memo signed by a long-departed clerk. More questions than answers. Why was it placed here? Was the clerk a temporary hire or political appointee? The only certainty was the clerk’s carelessness.
Carl returned to his office, spoke with his supervisor for the first time all day and briefly recounted his painstaking hunt for the missing case file. They shared a derisive laugh about the Dungeon and its old, misplaced files. Carl then noticed that most of the clerks were tidying up their desks and preparing to leave. Another workday was over.
Before leaving, Carl checked his desk for any new file requests. He had one new voice message from his bank contact. “You certainly had Teresa well-prepared. She is meeting right now with our staff attorney on the lease. It looks like we’re going to grant a one-year term at the same rate.”
As Carl walked toward the stairwell, he noticed the quiet. The visitors were gone and nearly all of the employees had left. Only a few security and cleaning personnel remained. Carl walked down the steps and waved goodbye to a few associates in the building’s lobby.
As Carl waited for the bus, he thought about his day. How he angered a man who seemed unable to help himself. How he helped an innocent woman regain her footing. How his file work made foreclosure decisions easier and fairer.
He stepped into the bus, greeted the driver, found an empty seat and sat down. He closed his eyes, listened to the engine and felt the bus accelerate. He thought about his neighborhood, home and wife. He began to think about tomorrow just as those thoughts gave way to sleep.
Recapping the Organization
County court clerks work for county government. According to the National Association of Counties, the US has 3,066 counties. All states except Connecticut and Rhode Island have counties (Alaska has boroughs and Louisiana has parishes). County governments vary in many ways, but their core functions are similar. Property assessment. Tax collection. Vital records. Social services. Public health. Law enforcement (usually for unincorporated areas_. Prosecution. Courts. Corrections. Elections.
The county court system—arguably the cornerstone of the nation’s judicial system—is one of county government’s most important responsibilities. It comprises many elected and appointed officials, including the Sheriff, Prosecutor, Public Defender and County Clerk, as well as Criminal, Civil and Juvenile Court Judges. The county courts also have many employees, but the court clerk may be the most important and underappreciated.
Great story I have been helped many times by workers in county government.