What is another name for Officer of the Court?
Technically an "Officer of the Court" is any officer who
receives his authority from, and owes allegiance to, a court of
competent jurisdiction. Court officers are required to take an oath
of office like a public official. In most states, these officers
include judges, the clerk of the court (and their deputy clerks),
court reporters, process servers, and all attorneys practicing
before that court.
Notaries Public, sheriffs, and police officers are typically
Officers of the State, rather than Officers of the Court. Judges
may actually be both Officers of the State and Officers of the
Court if they received their judicial appointment from a state
authority, such as the Governor.
Although all attorneys are court officers, the attorney is not
an employee or agent of the court or the court system. The attorney
owes his/her direct allegiance to the client, and this includes a
duty of advocacy of positions, based upon the facts, that favor the
client as long as they are within the bounds of recognized law. An
attorney can, and probably should, be creative in his/her
arguments, but may never misrepresent facts or law.
It is in the latter sense that the attorney is considered to be
an officer of the court. "Winning the case" may never be at the
expense of the integrity of the judicial system.