[3] These duties are important because the availability of legal relief often depends upon the timely filing of documents before applicable deadlines.
The magistrates decide on the facts at issue; the clerk advises them on the law relating to the case.
They empanel juries, arraign defendants and are responsible for maintaining the court record; which includes keeping a log of proceedings and creating warrants, notices and orders.
This double consolidation of roles between the executive and judicial branches and between state and local governments made sense as a money-saving measure in sleepy rural counties on the American frontier when they were sparsely populated and had rather rudimentary legal systems.
It no longer made quite as much sense in heavily populated urban counties by the late 20th century.