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Anyone worked as Court usher at ministry of justice

I have an interview for a court usher for the ministry of justice, A temp contract through the summer. The roles and responsibilities are given on the job description and don’t include administrating oaths and announcing judges but looking through a generic description on a court usher they do state that this is part of the job. I am not afraid of communicating but in front of a court I would definitely be . Can anyone who works or worked for ministry of justice confirm.
(edited 9 months ago)
I'm not a court usher but I'm a barrister, so I do come across a lot of court ushers. And the answer is that it depends what type of usher you are and in which court you work. Some ushers do announce judges (well, they say "court rise", "please stand" or similar), but most do not. I would think it unlikely that you'd have to do that as a summer temp simply because a lot of the ushers who do that are assigned to a particular judge of some seniority. In the County Court, for example, District Judges do not have their own individual ushers (ushers will deal with a number of District Judges, and DJs are usually in the room when the parties come in, so no need to announce them). Circuit Judges do have their own ushers, and those ushers announce them and also sit in with them during hearings. The roles are quite different, though, and I would be very surprised if a summer temp role was to be an usher for a CJ. Things are different in different courts, but in the round it's not something I wouldn't worry about it. I don't think you will have to announce anyone, but even if you do, it's literally telling everyone to stand up. You'll be fine.
Reply 2
Thanks for the reply that’s really helpful , I think I’m not really nervous to announce judges as much as it’s just a couple of words it’s more to administer oaths , do court ushers say the oaths and then the witness or Defendant say I do etc ? I think that’s more something I’m worried about as I feel like I will mess up in front of a bunch of people. Any advice on that would be really helpful. Thanks again for the help.



Original post by Crazy Jamie
I'm not a court usher but I'm a barrister, so I do come across a lot of court ushers. And the answer is that it depends what type of usher you are and in which court you work. Some ushers do announce judges (well, they say "court rise", "please stand" or similar), but most do not. I would think it unlikely that you'd have to do that as a summer temp simply because a lot of the ushers who do that are assigned to a particular judge of some seniority. In the County Court, for example, District Judges do not have their own individual ushers (ushers will deal with a number of District Judges, and DJs are usually in the room when the parties come in, so no need to announce them). Circuit Judges do have their own ushers, and those ushers announce them and also sit in with them during hearings. The roles are quite different, though, and I would be very surprised if a summer temp role was to be an usher for a CJ. Things are different in different courts, but in the round it's not something I wouldn't worry about it. I don't think you will have to announce anyone, but even if you do, it's literally telling everyone to stand up. You'll be fine.
Original post by Yayaya-221
Thanks for the reply that’s really helpful , I think I’m not really nervous to announce judges as much as it’s just a couple of words it’s more to administer oaths , do court ushers say the oaths and then the witness or Defendant say I do etc ? I think that’s more something I’m worried about as I feel like I will mess up in front of a bunch of people. Any advice on that would be really helpful. Thanks again for the help.

Generally speaking ushers do not administer oaths. I'm not entirely sure of the position in the crown court, but even then if an usher does do that it will be the usher in court, which would not be a temp role I expect. In other courts there the wording is on laminated paper on the witness box itself, and the witness just reads from that. On occasions where those aren't available I've seen both judges and barristers just tell the witness what to say from memory. So I'd really consider it to be extremely unlikely that you'd administer oaths as an usher. It may be part of the job description, but I don't think it happens very often any more. Even if you do, it's literally just a simple oath normally split up like this:

"I swear by Almighty God..."
"... that the evidence I shall give..."
"... shall be the truth..."
"... the whole truth..."
"... and nothing but the truth..."

After each of those lines the witness will repeat it and you'll go the next one. The non religious oath is only slightly different ("I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm" replaces the first line), and you're reading these things from a piece of paper yourself, so there really is very little scope to get it wrong. Even if you do, no one will care or remember for longer than a few seconds. It really isn't anything to worry about.

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