VPRS 4787 Court of Petty Sessions Record Book

Courts of Petty Sessions, or Magistrates' Courts as they have been called since 1971, dealt with a very large range of minor court matters and provided the lowest level of redress in civil and criminal matters. By the 1850's, an authoritative record of all decisions and orders made by these Courts was required to be kept, known as the Record Book. Usually civil and criminal matters were recorded in the same volume, although the largest and busiest courts may have created separate civil and criminal books.Unlike the Court of Petty Sessions Cause List Books that ultimately replaced them from 1858, record books were not generally created in a common format. This means that the information recorded for each case can vary within a given book or between different courts. The following details were usually recorded:- name of the Court and date of sitting- name of the accused (in criminal cases)- names of the complainant and defendant (in civil cases)- the cause (i.e the criminal charge of nature of the civil complaint)- the decision, and- any remarks.Record books appear to have been replaced by Cause List Books, which were introduced in late 1858 and which were created in a common format. In some Courts a record book and cause list book were maintained simultaneously for a time, essentially detailing the same information for each case. In some Courts, it is possible that the record book after 1858 performed the same function as a Deposition Book.

小额审判庭（Courts of Petty Sessions）——自1971年起更名为治安法院（Magistrates' Courts）——处理范围极广的轻微法庭事务，在民事和刑事事项中提供最低层级的救济。

到19世纪50年代，这些法院被要求留存所有判决和命令的权威记录，这类记录被称为记录簿（Record Book）。通常民事和刑事事项记录在同一卷册中，但规模最大、事务最繁忙的法院可能会分别设立民事和刑事记录簿。

与1858年起最终取代它们的小额审判庭案件清单簿（Court of Petty Sessions Cause List Books）不同，记录簿并无统一的通用格式。这意味着，单个记录簿内或不同法院之间，每个案件的记录信息可能存在差异。

记录簿通常包含以下细节：
- 法院名称及开庭日期
- 被告人姓名（刑事案件）
- 原告与被告姓名（民事案件）
- 案由（即刑事指控或民事投诉的性质）
- 判决结果
- 任何备注

记录簿似乎已被1858年末引入的案件清单簿（Cause List Books）取代，后者采用统一格式编制。部分法院曾一度同时留存记录簿与案件清单簿，两者本质上详细记录了每个案件的相同信息。在部分法院，1858年后的记录簿可能承担了与证言记录簿（Deposition Book）相同的功能。