Bailiff vs court clerk

The differences between bailiffs and court clerks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a court clerk has an average salary of $36,328, which is higher than the $33,162 average annual salary of a bailiff.

The top three skills for a bailiff include court dates, law enforcement and court proceedings. The most important skills for a court clerk are data entry, customer service, and subpoenas.

Bailiff vs court clerk overview

	Bailiff	Court Clerk
Yearly salary	$33,162	$36,328
Hourly rate	$15.94	$17.47
Growth rate	-10%	-
Number of jobs	130	69,560
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 46%	Bachelor's Degree, 39%
Average age	47	49
Years of experience	-	-

Bailiff vs court clerk salary

Bailiffs and court clerks have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Bailiff	Court Clerk
Average salary	$33,162	$36,328
Salary range	Between $23,000 And $46,000	Between $29,000 And $45,000
Highest paying City	-	Edmonds, WA
Highest paying state	-	Washington
Best paying company	-	Wayne County, Michigan
Best paying industry	-	Government

Differences between bailiff and court clerk education

There are a few differences between a bailiff and a court clerk in terms of educational background:

	Bailiff	Court Clerk
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 46%	Bachelor's Degree, 39%
Most common major	Criminal Justice	Business
Most common college	-	-

Bailiff vs court clerk demographics

Here are the differences between bailiffs' and court clerks' demographics:

	Bailiff	Court Clerk
Average age	47	49
Gender ratio	Male, 53.5% Female, 46.5%	Male, 17.0% Female, 83.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 13.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 1.6% White, 69.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0%	Black or African American, 10.8% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 20.3% Asian, 4.1% White, 59.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	11%	10%

Differences between bailiff and court clerk duties and responsibilities

Bailiff example responsibilities.

Manage prisoner appearances for court including booking and transportation to and from court.
Assign to patrol and investigative duties.
Handle arrests warrants and booking procedures.
Serve subpoenas, summons, and warrants.
Draft and execute subpoenas, search warrants and surveillance activities.
Call court to order, transport detainees and booking to CCDC, work with exposure to potentially difficult or dangerous individuals.

Court clerk example responsibilities.

Manage operations and LAN, plus data interchange with other agencies.
Receive and record payments of fees or fines, process notary commissions, order files and purge old files for achieves.
Answer public inquiries in terms of judicial proceedings, trial dates and witness fees along with preparing probation orders and summonses.
Maintain report for NCIC reports.
Count ballots and sign summons when necessary.
Handle daily operations of filing child support summons.

Bailiff vs court clerk skills

Common bailiff skills

Court Dates, 13%
Law Enforcement, 11%
Court Proceedings, 10%
Jury Trials, 9%
Court Sessions, 9%
Courtroom Procedures, 7%

Common court clerk skills

Data Entry, 10%
Customer Service, 9%
Subpoenas, 5%
Court Dates, 5%
Bench Warrants, 4%
Court Orders, 4%

Updated January 8, 2025

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