What Does a Court Assistant Do?

Judge assistants refer to judicial officers who are full-time adjudicators. They work under the supervision of judges, assisting them in legal research, drafting legal instruments, and other tasks related to case preparation and case management.

Judge assistant

The Supreme Court specifically defined the duties of judge assistants in the Measures for the Administration of Judge Assistants in the People's Courts (draft for comments) as follows:

"Judge assistants perform the following functions under the direction of judges:

(1) Reviewing the litigation materials, putting forward the main points of litigation disputes, summarizing and extracting evidence;

(2) pre-trial organization to exchange evidence;

(3) Presiding mediation on behalf of a judge and reaching a mediation agreement must be examined and confirmed by the judge;

(4) to deal with matters related to the lawyer's legal aid obligations as a defender or a designated legal agent to represent the lawsuit;

(5) Receiving the visits of the parties, agents and defenders of the case and checking the file materials;

(6) Investigating, collecting and checking relevant evidence according to law;

(7) To handle entrusted appraisal, evaluation, and audit;

(8) Assisting judges in taking litigation preservation measures;

(9) preparing reference materials related to the trial of the case;

(10) Handling related matters of case management;

(11) drafting legal instruments based on the judge's advice;

(12) Completing other auxiliary work related to the trial business assigned by the judge. "

Generally require a bachelor degree or above in law related majors;

Judge assistants are generally selected from the court's existing staff, but some are recruited for the community and there are no specific requirements for work experience.

In China, the system of judge assistants is still in the construction exploration stage. Judge assistants enjoy the treatment of civil servants, but the gap between the east and the west is relatively large. As for the judge assistants selected from the court, the legal duties and treatment of relevant personnel engaged in the work of assistant judges are maintained, so that they can exercise the duties of assistant judges while retaining their current status ^[1]