VPRS 3114 Court of Petty Sessions Special Complaints Register

The special jurisdiction of Courts of Petty Sessions was formally established by the Justices' Act 1928. From this time there were two mechanisms within Courts of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Courts for the redress of civil complaints. The "ordinary" jurisdiction empowered the court to determine cases for damages or debts where the precise amount of the claim could be determined according to some objective scale. An example would be the recovery of a debt for goods delivered. Claims brought to court in the ordinary civil jurisdiction often used the system of judgement by default. This system provided that where a respondent did not respond to a summons by giving notice of his or her intention to defend the claim, a judgement could be made in favour of the complainant without a formal court hearing. In its "special" jurisdiction the court itself determined the appropriate amount of redress and operated within a higher jurisdictional limit. Claims for damages arising out of a motor vehicle accident were typically handled in the special jurisdiction. In the special jurisdiction a stipendiary magistrate would preside rather than justices of the peace. The Magistrates' Courts (Civil Jurisdiction) Act 1979 abolished the distinction between ordinary and special complaints and established a single civil jurisdiction. A separate register was required to be kept for recording special complaints. Special Complaints Registers are generally in a common format, giving details of the case number, the name of the complainant, the name of the respondent, how the case came to the court (type and date of summons), a description of the cause or proceeding, the decision or order and any remarks. In order to authenticate entries made in the register the presiding Stipendiary Magistrate signed it at the end of each day.

小额诉讼法院（Courts of Petty Sessions）的特殊管辖权由《1928年治安法官法》（Justices' Act 1928）正式确立。此后，小额诉讼法院/治安法院（Magistrates' Courts）内存在两种处理民事投诉的救济机制。"普通"管辖权赋予法院裁决损害赔偿或债务案件的权力，此类案件的索赔金额可根据某种客观标准精确确定，例如货物交付所产生债务的追偿。通过普通民事管辖权提交法院的索赔常采用缺席判决制度：若被投诉人未通过发出抗辩意向通知回应传票，则无需正式庭审即可作出有利于投诉人的判决。在"特殊"管辖权下，法院自行确定适当的救济金额，并在更高的管辖权限额内运作，机动车事故引发的损害赔偿索赔通常由该管辖权处理。特殊管辖权案件由领薪治安法官（stipendiary magistrate）主持，而非太平绅士（justices of the peace）。《1979年治安法院（民事管辖权）法》（Magistrates' Courts (Civil Jurisdiction) Act 1979）废除了普通与特殊投诉的区分，建立了单一民事管辖权。此外，特殊投诉需单独登记备案，特殊投诉登记簿通常采用统一格式，包含案件编号、投诉人姓名、被投诉人姓名、案件提交方式（传票类型及日期）、诉讼原因或程序描述、判决或命令及备注等细节。为认证登记簿中的记录，主持的领薪治安法官需在每日结束时签字确认。