VPRS 1470 Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court Police/Arrest Registers

Scope of this Series: This series consists of police or arrest registers created at the Court of Petty Sessions at Northcote. The series commenced 1896. Prior to that time, police / arrest cases were recorded in VPRS 338 Court of Petty Sessions Magistrates' Court Registers which is thus a previous series to this series up to 1896.In 1978 VPRS 338 ceased to be created and matters previously recorded in that series were, from the beginning of 1979, recorded in this series (VPRS 1470). VPRS 338 is again, thus, a previous series to this series up to 1978. This series ceased to be created in 1984 from which time process, that is, the practice of recording the decision on the summons or warrant, was used to form the court register (see below for further details). The relationships between VPRS 1470 and VPRS 338 are illustrated below.Background: 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.Until about 1888 this record was usually called a Cause List Book and had a slightly different format; since then the term Register has been used.In many courts, particularly larger ones, clerks have maintained several sequences of registers according to different types of matters dealt with by the court. Police/Arrest Registers record details of criminal cases where the defendant was arrested by the police and brought by them to court. (The other main mechanism for commencing criminal cases and bringing defendants to court was by summons.)Police/Arrest Registers are generally in the same format as all other Petty Sessions Registers, giving details of the case number, the name of the prosecutor or informant, the name of the accused or defendant, how the case came to the court (in all cases this would state "arrest") the fees or court costs accrued, a description of the charge, cause or proceeding, the decision or order and any remarks. The column for remarks was often used to record the payment of fines and fees.In order to authenticate entries made in the register the presiding officer(s) of the court signed the register at the end of each day.