Judgments Clerk

Job summary

The Supreme Court is the United Kingdom’s highest court of appeal. It hears appeals on arguable points of law of general public importance, concentrating on cases of the greatest significance. The UKSC is the final court of appeal for all United Kingdom civil cases, and criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland and (in certain cases) Scotland. The Court plays an important role in the development of UK law. The impact of UKSC decisions extends far beyond the parties involved in any given case, helping to shape our society. Its judgments directly affect everyday lives. At the end of 2024, the Court implemented the CRM software and websites that were developed as part of a wide-ranging Change Programme. The Change Programme focused on our people, culture, and processes, by putting user needs at the heart of everything we do. Technology and online services are the enabler for building an excellent customer journey, delivering online services that our users rightly expect and need. This has greatly improved our efficiency and effectiveness and we will continue to build on the flexibility and resilience of our workforce providing them with the skills and tools that they need to deliver excellence as part of the Skilled Civil Service. The Change Programme is also about transparency and outreach, so that we can serve the public by ensuring that our work is visible, accessible, and trusted.

The Judgments Clerk reports to the Costs and Judgments Officer. This role also involves working closely with the Justices and the Registry team to ensure that all judgments of the UKSC and the JCPC are handled efficiently, in a timely manner, and with accuracy.

Job description

Purpose of the role:

• To co-ordinate the production of judgments, press summaries and court orders for the UKSC and JCPC.
• To provide accurate and reliable data reports for Justices and other colleagues.
• To engage with the launch of the new case management system and website Portal and to improve processes as new ways of working are developed.
• To assist flexibly with administrative duties in the Registry team.

Key responsibilities:

Judgments

• Formatting and editing UKSC and JCPC draft judgments to a high degree of accuracy in accordance with the house-style, using the bespoke template. Rapid and confident familiarity with and ownership of the template software will be required, as will ability to assist Justices with template needs.
• Fixing hand-down dates, planning the judgment hand-down schedule, and ensuring all stakeholders are kept informed, including summer vacation planning.
• Cross-referencing and formatting final draft judgments to a high degree of accuracy before circulating to legal teams.
• Circulating judgments to legal teams, the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR), and Justices, ensuring that embargo terms, correction deadlines, and hand-down schedules are clearly communicated and adhered to. Ensuring press summaries are prepared according to appropriate deadlines.
• Maintaining a strong working relationship with the ICLR and acting as a key liaison to coordinate judgment proofreading.
• Managing the correction process by issuing corrections to Justices with clear deadlines, ensuring all amendments are finalised in time for hand-down.
• Finalising judgments and applying the required metadata to judgments and press summaries, preparing them for publication.
• Co-ordinating court hand-downs: fixing panels of Justices, preparing papers, and liaising with parties and internal stakeholders about broadcasting and other arrangements.
• Commissioning the drafting of orders reflecting the judgments to be drafted by the parties.
• Coordinating and implementing the use of new technology and process improvements.

Data

• Ensuring timely and accurate entry of judgment data on the case management system.
• Preparing accurate and informative data reports for CEO and management team covering range of Registry data areas.
• Monitoring the robustness, utility and accuracy of statistical reports.

Judicial and Court Support

• Showing flexibility to assess different priorities each day depending on the needs of the Justices.
• Continually developing knowledge and processes to support the Court’s objective to be a world-leading Court.

Person specification

The successful candidate will ideally have knowledge, skills and experience in:

Essential

• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Strong ICT skills and full competence in use of the Microsoft Office suite (in particular Outlook, SharePoint, Excel and Word), mobile technology and databases
• Good literacy and numeracy skills, with the ability to produce clear, well-presented, concise reports
• Able to prioritise tasks and plan ahead
• Excellent attention to detail
• Tact, diplomacy and discretion

Desirable

• Knowledge of the UK Courts (or JCPC Courts) and the legal profession
• Knowledge of the relevant rules and practice directions
• Experience of proofreading
• Experience of working with a diverse range of people

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,341, The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom contributes £7,920 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Generous annual leave of 23 days leave rising to 25 days after 1 year and 30 days after 5 years’ service plus 9 ½ Public and Privilege days per year (pro rata for job-share or part-time appointments).
• On-site café and discounts for staff.
• Corporate membership to Benenden Health.
• EdenRed employee benefits scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Seasonal ticket loan.
• Ability to buy or sell up to 5 days of annual leave each year.
• Annual eyecare voucher.
• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• A culture encouraging diversity and inclusion.
• Reward voucher scheme.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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