The Clerk's Duty to Enter Judgment

Entering Judgment on General Verdicts

The Clerk's Duty to Enter Judgment

When a jury returns a general verdict, the clerk of court enters judgment alone. Subject to Rule 54(b) and unless the court orders otherwise, the clerk must, without awaiting the court's direction, promptly prepare, sign, and enter the judgment when the jury returns a general verdict.¹ The task is ministerial, a routine act that calls for no discretion, because the jury has already announced the outcome and the clerk only records it. Rule 54(b) and a contrary court order qualify the duty, and the next section takes them up.

Each phrase of the rule does separate work. “Without awaiting the court's direction” means the clerk acts on the verdict itself, with no order from the judge. “Promptly” means the date of entry follows closely behind the verdict. And “the jury returns a general verdict” names the event that starts the duty, so a verdict of another kind never starts it. The duty has three parts, to prepare the judgment, to sign it, and to enter it, and the clerk performs all three without the court.

Which verdict starts the duty turns on its form. A general verdict finds in general terms for one side, so it names the winner and, in a damages case, usually the amount. A special verdict finds only facts and leaves the judge to apply the law to them. A third form pairs a general verdict with written answers to interrogatories: the court directs the jury both to answer in writing and to render a general verdict.² Of the three, only the plain general verdict sets the clerk's independent duty running. When the court orders some other relief, or the jury returns a special verdict or a general verdict accompanied by written answers, the court must promptly approve the form of the judgment, and the clerk then enters it.³

An exam stem that says only that the jury “returned a verdict” leaves the decisive question unanswered: does the verdict name a winner? If it does, the clerk acts alone and promptly. If the jury answered only fact questions, or returned a general verdict with written answers, the court approves the form of judgment first.

The design follows from what a general verdict contains. The jury has said who won and, usually, how much, so the judge has nothing left to decide about what the judgment should say. Routing entry through a judicial order would add a step but no decision, and it would add delay. Delay would cost something, because the timing of appeals depends on the date of entry, and the rule's demand that the clerk act “promptly” signals that the process is not to be dilatory.⁴

The clerk's ministerial role reaches beyond jury verdicts. The same provision directs the clerk to act without awaiting the court's direction when the court awards only costs or a sum certain, or denies all relief.⁵ In Stephanie-Cardona LLC v. Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Inc., a stipulation and order denied Stephanie-Cardona all relief, and the opinion quotes the clerk's duty in a footnote, citing it as Rule 58(a)(2)(A).⁶ The court said the clerk should have prepared a separate judgment and entered it without specific direction from the court.⁷ The clerk's failure to act promptly did not stop the clock: judgment was entered as a matter of law 150 days after the stipulation and order were docketed, and the 30-day period for appeal ran from that date.⁸ The 150-day rule has its own section below. The case shows two things at once: the duty needs no order, and a clerk's lapse does not freeze the case.