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Series VPRS
1665
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Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court City Court Register
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| Date Range: |
Series |
1888 - cont |
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Series in Custody |
1888 - 1987 |
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Contents |
1888 - 1987 |
| Public Access: |
Open |
| Location: |
North Melbourne |
| Format of Records: |
Physical |
  | Agency which created this SeriesAgency which created this Series |
| Agency currently responsible for this SeriesAgency currently responsible for this Series |
| Description of this SeriesDescription of this Series |
- How to use the Records
Consult VPRS 1666 City Court Index of Convictions. Note the case number and dates of hearing of cases in which you are interested.
Consult the Register for the relevant year(s). Entries are arranged chronologically by date of hearing. Each case was given a number and subsequent hearings, adjournments etc. Will have the same number. The first entry will provide the date of any subsequent hearing.
If the accused were not convicted, there will be no reference to the case in the Index. To locate the records of such cases, you need to know the name of the accused/defendant and the approximate date of the hearing. Consult the volume of the Register for the required year(s) and systematically search the entries.
If the relevant index is no longer extant, follow the procedure for case where the accused was not convicted.
- Function / Content
City Court Registers are a sequence of registers created by Melbourne Magistrates' Court for cases heard in one of its court rooms known as the City Court. They are the equivalent of Police/Arrest Registers found at other courts.
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. City Court 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.)
Content: City Court 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.
- Recordkeeping System
Entries in the volumes were made in chronological order of the date the case came before the court and each case received a consecutive number. In the nineteenth century many courts used a system whereby the case number reverted to 1 each day, thus cases were identified by the date of hearing and their number. For most of the twentieth century and until the introduction of the "courtlink" computerised case management system in the late 1980's an annual numbering system was used, thus the case numbering system reverted to 1 at the beginning of each year. This number, allocated at the time of entry in the register (a few days before the hearing), was also annotated onto all documents lodged with the court during the case.
Related Records
Other types of registers from this court are listed in the Inventory of Series.
Several types of warrants, summonses, informations (ie statements by witnesses and parties to the case informing the court about the case) and other documents were also lodged with or created by the court in the process of administering each case. The documents were known as "process" and were placed together to create a case file. In most instances these files have been destroyed about fifteen years after the completion of the case to which they relate.
1970's and 1980's: Use of Process to form Register
In the 1970's and 1980's many courts ceased to use bound volumes to maintain a court register and began the practice of recording the court's decision on the summons or warrant issued by the court to initiate proceedings. This document was annotated by the presiding Magistrate with his or her decision then filed in case number order with other initiating documents to form a register. Some courts subsequently placed these documents in masonite folders or lever arch files whilst at other courts the court register for this period is simply bundles of papers.
1990's: Electronic Registration of Court Cases
In 1988 the Courts Management Division of the Attorney-General's Department commenced introducing a computerised case management system known as "Courtlink". Courtlink was introduced into all courts between 1988 and 1993 and replaced the former manual registers. Courtlink uses one system of case numbering for all Victorian Magistrates' Court Cases. It records the same types of information as previously recorded in the manual registers, and additionally includes several pieces of information used to manage caseflow and enforcement.
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| Indexes and RegistersIndexes and Registers |
| Controlled SeriesControlled Series |
| Previous SeriesPrevious Series |
| Subsequent SeriesSubsequent Series |
| List/s of records in this seriesList/s of records in this series |
| Indexes and RegistersIndexes and Registers |
| More research resourcesMore research resources |
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