Clerical error

A clerical error is an error on part of an office worker, often a secretary or personal assistant. It is a phrase which can 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, less identifiable, less punishable, and certainly less embarrassable clerical staff.

A clerical error in a legal document is called a scrivener's error. There is a considerable body of case law concerning the proper treatment of a scrivener's error.

Clerical errors of note

 * The attack on Pearl Harbor which was not supposed to be a surprise attack. The Japanese had intended to deliver a note declaring both war and their intentions at Pearl Harbor to the United States prior to the attack, but due to a clerical mishap the note was delivered late.


 * 18½ Minutes of the infamous "Watergate" tapes were, allegedly, accidentally erased by Richard Nixon's Secretary in a clerical error which may have very well changed the course of American history.

Also see
Baronies created by error