The Brief - May 2017

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The Brief

Vol. 13, No. 5                                                                      May 2017

Clerk’s Case History Index

Miranda, Winnie Ruth Judd, the Soul case, the Ring decision, In Re Gault. If you have some background in the legal field, these cases may sound familiar. But did you know they all had hearings in the Superior Court in Maricopa County? They are a few of the cases summarized in the Clerk’s Case History Index. The Index is updated each year and tracks court statistics, notorious cases, and other facts and figures, including death penalty sentencings from 1920 through 2016. The Index contains statistics, percentages, graphs, and growth data by case type as well as statistics on marriage licenses. Scroll through for points of interest or do specific keyword searches. Like its Annual Report, the Clerk’s information differs from the Court’s tracking due to different measures and data points. See the Case History Index online at http://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/case_history.asp.

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Stamp Out Document Preparation Errors

As the restyling of the criminal rules of court reaches the final round of comments in the rules cycle, the Clerks’ Association pointed out the importance of leaving space for the Clerk’s file stamp. Litigants have many filing options, depending on the case type: paper over a file counter, using an interior or exterior filing depository box, eFiling, and filing by mail. Making sure your documents have a 2-inch-by-2-inch blank square at the top-right corner of the first page of every filing is one way to prevent filing problems and to ensure a legible file stamp. The Clerk’s office posted document preparation guidelines on its website to address the most frequent document preparation errors. The website includes helpful resources like local rules and traps to avoid in our system of scanning paper into digital images. See the guidelines on the Clerk’s website at http://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/document_preparation_guidelines.asp.

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Weekends Are For Working

Every now and then that is true for the Clerk’s marriage licenses and passports staff. The office recently completed five days of Saturday hours over three months. The office opened its downtown Phoenix location to process passport applications and issue marriage licenses. A spike of passport applications 10 years ago is creating another spike in renewals. Saturday hours were well received by the Clerk’s customers. Over five Saturdays the office processed 548 passport applications and issued 31 marriage licenses. Future non-traditional hours will be posted as events on the Clerk’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MaricopaClerk) and announced through the Clerk’s Twitter feed (@MaricopaClerk).