Higher Court Administration Exam case studies
Higher Court Administration Exam · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Higher Court Administration Exam is a professional certification assessment for people who run the business side of courts: registrars, deputy registrars, court managers, chambers administrators, and senior clerical staff moving into supervisory roles. It tests whether you can keep a court running lawfully and efficiently, not whether you can argue a case. The Higher Court Administration Exam case studies are 5 cases and about 4,482 words.
1Small-Claims Backlog, Vacant Judgeships, and a Capped Overtime Budget
You are the court administrator for a district court with 14 authorized judgeships, two of which have been vacant for seven months. At the end of the third quarter, the small-claims calendar shows 1,850 pending cases, up 31% year over year, and median time from filing to disposition has risen from 2.1 to 3.4 months.
912 words, about 5 min2Defective Service, a Default Motion, and a Late Amendment Adding an LLC
A plaintiff sues a former business partner, an individual, for breach of contract in a court of general jurisdiction. The complaint is filed on March 3.
904 words, about 5 min3Late Hearing Request, a Rejected Email, and a Post-Comment Technical Memo
A regional environmental agency issues a five-year wastewater discharge permit to a food-processing plant after a 30-day public comment period. A downstream residents' association submits comments opposing the permit and requests a contested-case hearing, which the agency denies as untimely because the request arrived on day 31.
860 words, about 4 min4Mid-Year Budget Cut, Restricted Grant Funds, and a Sole-Source Cloud Contract
The court has a 2.4 million annual operating budget. It received a 500,000 state grant for digital case management, restricted to software licensing, hardware, and implementation services; it cannot fund personnel or routine maintenance after the grant period.
868 words, about 4 min5Ransomware Outage on a Filing Deadline and an Unconfirmed Data Breach
On a Friday afternoon before a filing deadline, the court's electronic filing portal becomes unavailable. The vendor reports a ransomware incident at a subcontractor; the portal has been down for six hours.
938 words, about 5 min