Clerical error

A clerical error is an error on the part of an office worker, often a secretary 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 clerical staff.There is a considerable body of case law concerning the proper treatment of a scrivener's error. For example, where the parties to a contract make an oral agreement that, when reduced to a writing, is mistranscribed, the aggrieved party is entitled to reformation so that the writing corresponds to the oral agreement.Over 18 minutes of the Watergate tapes were erased by Richard Nixon's secretary in a claimed clerical error. Some writers have suggested that this may have changed the course of American history.