48-157. Clerk; administrator; appointment; duties.

(1) The presiding judge of the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court shall appoint a clerk of the compensation court and such employees as the compensation court deems necessary to support the judicial proceedings of the compensation court, subject to approval of the compensation court. The clerk and employees supporting the judicial proceedings of the compensation court shall serve at the pleasure of the compensation court and shall perform such duties pertaining to the affairs of the court as the compensation court may prescribe or as otherwise provided by law.

(2) The presiding judge shall, subject to approval of the compensation court, appoint an administrator of the compensation court, who shall be the chief administrative officer of the compensation court. The administrator shall serve at the pleasure of the compensation court and shall perform such duties pertaining to affairs of the compensation court as the presiding judge may prescribe or as otherwise provided by law. The administrator shall appoint such other employees as the administrator deems necessary to carry out the duties of the administrator, subject to approval of the presiding judge. Employees appointed by the administrator shall serve at the pleasure of the administrator and shall perform such duties as the administrator may prescribe.

(3) The clerk shall, under the direction of the presiding judge, keep a full and true record of the judicial proceedings of the compensation court, record all pleadings and other documents filed with the compensation court, and issue all necessary notices and writs. No action shall be taken on any pleading or other document filed with the compensation court until the same has been recorded by the clerk. At the time a petition or motion is filed the clerk shall, on a rotating basis, assign one of the judges of the compensation court to hear the cause.

(4) The clerk may, under the direction of the presiding judge, make or cause to be made preservation duplicates of any record relating to the judicial proceedings of the compensation court. The original record may be destroyed, but only with the approval of the State Records Administrator pursuant to the Records Management Act. The reproduction of the preservation duplicates shall be admissible as evidence in any court of record in the State of Nebraska and, when duly certified, shall be evidence of equal credibility with the original record.

(5) Notices of hearings, notices of continuances, and summonses may be destroyed without preparing preservation duplicates after a record of their issuance has been made in the docket book. A reproduction of the page of the docket book or of the preservation duplicate of the page of the docket book showing such record and, in the case of summonses, showing issuance or return of the summons, when duly certified, shall be evidence of equal credibility with the original notice or summons. Correspondence, exhibits, and other documents relating to the judicial proceedings of the compensation court which the clerk deems to be irrelevant, unimportant, or superfluous may be destroyed without preparing preservation duplicates.

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Annotations

The office of clerk of the compensation court is provided for by this section, and the clerk is made the keeper of the records of the proceedings of the court. Dolner v. Peter Kiewit & Sons Co., 143 Neb. 384, 9 N.W.2d 483 (1943).