VPRS 2440 Court Of Petty Sessions Special Complaints Registers

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.

小额诉讼法院的特别管辖权由1928年《治安法官法》正式确立。自此以后，小额诉讼法院/地方法院内部存在两种处理民事申诉救济的机制。

普通管辖权（ordinary jurisdiction）授权法院审理损害赔偿或债务案件，此类案件的索赔金额可根据某种客观标准确定——例如追回已交付货物的债务。通过普通民事管辖权提交法院的索赔案件通常采用缺席判决制度：若被申请人未通过发出应诉通知回应传票，则可在无需正式庭审的情况下作出有利于申诉人的判决。

特别管辖权（special jurisdiction）下，法院自行确定适当的救济金额，并在更高的管辖限额内运作。机动车事故引起的损害赔偿索赔通常由特别管辖权处理，且在此类管辖权下，由领薪治安法官而非太平绅士主持审理。

1979年《地方法院（民事管辖权）法》废除了普通申诉与特别申诉的区分，确立了单一的民事管辖权。

此前，需单独保存登记册以记录特别申诉。特别申诉登记册通常采用通用格式，包含案件编号、申诉人姓名、被申请人姓名、案件提交法院的方式（传票类型及日期）、案由或诉讼程序描述、裁决或命令及任何备注等详细信息。为验证登记册中的条目，主持审理的领薪治安法官需在每日结束时签字确认。