Clerical error

The phrase may also be used as an excuse to deflect blame away from specific individuals, such as high-powered executives, and instead redirect it to the more anonymous clerical staff.

There is a considerable body of case law concerning the proper treatment of a scrivener's error.

[3] However, Ortiz was mistakenly adjudicated guilty of a felony for the count of marijuana possession.

In some circumstances, courts can also correct scrivener's errors found in primary legislation.

[4] Over 18 minutes of the Watergate tapes were supposedly erased by Richard Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, in a claimed clerical error.

The motorboat Owaissa , hauled out of the water sometime prior to her service as the United States Navy patrol vessel. The notation "Katie" is a clerical error by someone who mistook the photograph for one of the motorboat Katie , which later served as the United States Navy patrol vessel
Rose Mary Woods demonstrating the " Rose Mary stretch " by which she claimed that she accidentally erased 18 + 1 ⁄ 2 minutes of the " Watergate tapes " during a phone call.