If a day in court is running smoothly, it's probably due to the clerk magistrate

A district court clerk magistrate has many roles on a day-to-day basis — they run hearings, approve criminal charges and are often the public face for the court.

"The clerks have a lot to do with how the people who come into the building view the court system," said Framingham District Court's new clerk magistrate, former Governor's Councilor Robert Jubinville. "People often come in and they're scared and often they're from different countries where when people go into a court they never come out. It's very important to put a good face on for the people and make sure they are comfortable. People feel good when they're treated good."

Thomas Carrigan, clerk magistrate for 25 years at Milford District Court, said the job is really split into two parts.

The "clerk" part of the job is to manage the clerk's office, which involves several assistants who keep track of all the cases — civil, criminal or others — and keep them on schedule, making sure the parties involved have all of the correct court paperwork.

As magistrate, there are several duties, Carrigan said.

Clerk magistrates hold hearings for criminal complaints — often minor crimes that don't lead to arrests. A clerk can dismiss the case, issue a fine or move the case before a judge.

When someone is arrested, a clerk magistrate must find probable cause for charges before moving in front of a judge. If no judge is available and an arraignment must happen, a clerk magistrate can run arraignments, Carrigan said.

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They also hold traffic hearings and can approve search warrants.

"The clerk magistrate, the judge and the chief probation officer share management responsibilities for what is going on in the court," said Carrigan. "The judge has general superintendence over everything."

New local magistrates

Jubinville, 76, is one of two new clerk magistrates in MetroWest courts. Jennifer Lennon, the longtime assistant clerk magistrate in Marlborough District Court, was recently appointed to the top job there.

Jubinville, of Milton, was a lawyer for 46 years, making several visits to Framingham District Court.

He also has ties to the area. When he was in the Army, he served as an experimental test subject at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier System Center (known simply as Natick Labs).

"It was kind of rough, some of the experiments they did were difficult, you'd end up getting sick," Jubinville said.

One of the big projects he will help undertake in Framingham District Court, which shares space with Natick District Court, is to digitize cases dating back to the 1950s, to create more space in the building.

He said he strives to try to make people's lives as unproblematic as possible when they come to court.

"The district court, it doesn't handle the same things as superior courts," he said. "We have a lot of OUIS (drunk driving, domestics, no licenses). A lot of the things we deal with aren't that serious. We need to work with those, get some of those dismissed. I ran hearings today and I dismissed most of the cases upon payment. They weren't that big of a deal, (so) why make things more difficult for people?"

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: New clerk magistrates for Framingham, Marlborough district courts