VPRS 15892 Court of Petty Sessions Record Book (GRS 1017)

Courts of Petty Sessions, or Magistrates' Courts as they have been called since 1971, dealt with a very large range of minor court matters. Apart from a large number of tribunals, they provide the lowest level of redress in civil and criminal matters, with the County Court, the Supreme Court and various Commonwealth courts hearing and determining more serious criminal cases and larger civil disputes.By at least the late 1850s, an authoritative record of all decisions and orders made by Courts of Petty Sessions was required to be kept. This record was usually called the Record Book.ContentIn the 1850s most Courts of Petty Sessions dealt with criminal and civil matters as they arose. Accordingly, Record Books generally give details of these types of cases. Only the largest and busiest courts recorded civil and criminal matters separately.Unlike the Cause List Books that ultimately replaced them, Record Books are not generally in a common format. This means that the information recorded for each case is written in a manner determined by the court officer responsible. For each case heard, details are usually given of the name of the court, the date of sitting, the name of the accused (in criminal cases), the names of the complainant and defendant (in civil cases), the cause (ie. the criminal charge or the nature of the civil claim), the decision and any remarks.ArrangementEntries in the Record Book were made in chronological order according to the date they were heard by the court. Each case may also receive a consecutive case number. Thus cases were identified by the date of hearing and their case number. It is assumed that this identifying symbol was annotated onto all documents lodged with the court prior to or during the case.Cause List BooksRecord Books appear to have been replaced by Cause List Books which were introduced from late 1858 or early 1859. In some courts, a Record Book and Cause List Book were maintained simultaneously for a time, essentially detailing the same information for each case.This record is Item 1 of GRS 1017.