VPRS 10672 Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court Maintenance and Family Law Register

The 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.Successive 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 and family law matters, although the registers were in the same format as all other petty sessions court registers.At most courts Maintenance and Family Law 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 were also used to record judgements relating to matters of custody of children, access arrangements, and the division of property.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 (eg. an application for maintenance or an application for custody of or access to the children of the marriage), and the court's decision.