VPRS 8764 Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court Maintenance Register

Background: Maintenance for Deserted or Destitute Wives and ChildrenThe 1928 Maintenance Act and previously successive Marriages Acts established provisions for maintenance support to be provided by husbands who had left their wives or children without means of support. Courts of Petty Sessions were empowered to hear complaints regarding desertion and to set levels and enforce the payment of maintenance. The 1965 Maintenance Act is still in force in Victoria (as at 1992). However the 1975 Commonwealth Family Law Act also has provision for the granting of maintenance and most orders are now made under this Act. A different record keeping system applies to maintenance records under the Family Law Act.Function/ContentSuccessive Justices' Acts and, more recently, Magistrates' Court Acts have required the clerk or registrar of the court to make and keep a register of all convictions, orders and other proceedings of the court. This register is the authoritative record of the court. Most courts maintained a separate sequence of registers for maintenance matters, although the registers were in the same format as all other petty sessions court registers.At most courts Maintenance Registers were used to record three types of maintenance matters: applications for the court to set a level of maintenance, applications for the court to vary the level of maintenance, and enforcement applications, that is, where maintenance orders had been breached, maintenance recipients could seek a court order for payments to be made. Failure to comply resulted in the imprisonment of the defendant.The Registers give details of the names of the complainant (usually the wife) and the defendant (usually the husband), the nature of the matter before the court (being an application for maintenance on the grounds of unlawful desertion, an application to vary maintenance or an application to recover maintenance arrears), and the court's decision.

背景：遗弃或贫困妻儿的赡养费保障
1928年《赡养费法》及此前一系列《婚姻法》确立了相关条款，规定遗弃妻儿且未提供经济支持能力的丈夫需向其支付赡养费。小额裁判法院有权审理遗弃相关申诉，并有权确定赡养费金额、强制要求支付赡养费。1965年《赡养费法》截至1992年仍在澳大利亚维多利亚州生效。不过1975年《联邦家庭法》也设有赡养费裁定条款，如今绝大多数赡养费裁定均依据该法作出。《家庭法》项下的赡养费记录采用独立的存档管理体系。

职能与内容：
一系列《治安法官法》及近期的《治安法院法》要求法院书记员或登记官制作并保管所有定罪记录、法院命令及其他诉讼程序的登记册。该登记册为法院的权威档案。多数法院会为赡养费事项单独设立登记序列，尽管其格式与其他小额诉讼法院登记册完全一致。
在多数法院，赡养费登记册用于记录三类赡养费相关事项：一是向法院申请核定赡养费金额，二是向法院申请变更赡养费金额，三是强制执行申请——即当赡养费支付义务被违反时，受赡养方可向法院申请强制支付赡养费。若义务人拒不履行，可对其处以监禁。
该登记册会记载申诉人（通常为妻子）与被告人（通常为丈夫）的姓名、法院审理事项的性质（包括以非法遗弃为由申请赡养费、申请变更赡养费或申请追讨欠付赡养费），以及法院的裁决结果。