Virginia’s circuit courts handle everything from murder trials to marriage certificates. And the workforce making it all happen are deputy court clerks. Amidst the pandemic, their workload has only gotten heavier.
Despite that, many circuit courts in the state are understaffed and the clerks underpaid. Now advocates are hoping lawmakers can find money in the budget to help.
In southwest Virginia, the Dickenson County Circuit Court is staffed by three clerks. Recently they finished an almost two-year long training that should have made them eligible for a raise. But instead of the 9-percent pay increase, they were told there wasn’t money in the state budget.
That was a serious financial blow, says their boss Clerk of Court Richard Edwards.
“I have two of my clerks are single mothers. So you know they strive to make as much as they can,” Edwards said, adding that one performs wedding ceremonies in her spare time to make extra cash. “They have to work pretty hard to make ends meet.”
State funding for a deputy circuit clerk’s starting salary in Virginia is about $22,000. The Virginia Court Clerks Association is asking for the state to bring that number up so that it’s in line with the starting salary for district court clerks.
There’s a discrepancy because funding for circuit clerks is often supplemented by local governments. But Paul Ferguson, Clerk of Court for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church in northern Virginia, says there’s a flaw in relying on that.
“The problem with it is that there’s no guarantee that you’re going to receive a subsidy, and in fact 25-percent of circuit court clerks receive little or no subsidy at all from their locality,” Ferguson said. “So it’s just bad public policy.”
In addition to increasing salaries, the Clerks Association is also asking for money for new technology. Ferguson says many localities, mostly rural, don’t make enough on court fees to fund the upgrades themselves.
“Some courts haven’t been able to scan all their records or digitize their files. They’re still working with paper files,” said Ferguson.
All told, the Clerks Association is asking for about $4.5 million dollars in extra funding for technology and staff -- a drop in the ocean that is Virginia’s approximately $60 billion budget. But amidst a pandemic and declining revenues, lawmakers chose not to include any of that additional money in their latest budget.
Llezelle Dugger is Clerk of Court in Charlottesville and president of the Court Clerks Association. She argues the money is a necessary investment in the state’s judicial system.
“We handle every felony case, capital murder all the way down to your grand larceny felony will get heard in circuit court,” Dugger said. “My deputies take care of the records and make sure they’re accurate and that they’re here for anyone who wants to see them.”
And that’s just a quick rundown of the criminal side of things. Circuit court clerks also handle civil cases. Then there are divorces, adoptions, concealed carry permits, probates, deeds and land records. The list of job duties is in the hundreds.
Dugger says all those essential public services move more slowly when courts are understaffed. For instance her office in Charlottesville is currently a person down because someone left for the higher paying job in the District Court.
“I’ve been interviewing folks the last four weeks for the position,” Dugger said. “I’ve had three people turn me down because I can’t pay them enough.”
For other localities there aren’t even enough positions to fill in the first place. Vanessa Porter is Clerk of the King and Queen County Circuit Court. She says she hasn’t been able to take a real vacation since 2016, adding it’s tough for either of her team of two to take any time off.
“And when you go above and beyond like that, the disheartening part is you don’t get paid for it,” Porter said. “It’s like the state... they’re not understanding how much these deputies are doing and how valuable they are.”
The raise the Clerks Association is asking for would bring the starting salary for deputy circuit clerks to about $30,000 a year.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
