Record series
Extracts from Database for the Management of Prosecution and Litigation Records
VPRS 16043
1996 - 1998
Closed
North Melbourne
Agencies
This record series was created by:
Office of Public Prosecutions (Known as Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions from 1983-1995) ( VA2550 ): 1996 - present
Agencies responsible for this record series: Date Range
Series date range: 1996 - 1998
Series in custody:
1986 - 1998
Contents in custody:
1986 - 1998
Function / Content
These records are a hardcopy extract of records held within PRISM, which was an electronic database created and used by the Office of Public Prosecutions. PRISM was a case management system used to register and track cases. The records are held in folders arranged by calendar year. Each has the same organisational structure with three columns on the page - Matter ID, Accused and Date of Birth. While the columns for Matter ID and Accused will always contain data, the Date of Birth is often absent.This system allows control of the records held in VPRS 14414 through the identification of the Matter ID for each case heard allowing the user to identify and request the record that they require.
The PRISM database was the successor to the CMS (Case Management System) database. It holds records from 1996 to current.
How to use the records
Consult these hardcopy extracts of the Prosecution Records Information Systems Management (PRISM) database in order to either find the Matter ID for a particular accused person, or the accused person to whom a Matter ID relates for Prosecution and Litigation records held by the Office of Public Prosecutions.Users will need to scan through the data in order to find the person for whom they are searching. The Matter ID then recorded against the individual can be used to order records within VPRS 14414 Prosecution and Litigation Records in order to access the file(s) on the individual case.
Use the name of the defendant(s), to locate the Matter ID in VPRS 14415 PRISM (Prosecution Records Information Systems Management) Database for the case number. The free-text field in PRISM links PRISM case numbers to case numbers from the previous numbering system.
Recordkeeping system
Matter ID refers to the unique identifier given to each case. If an individual was accused in two or more cases, each will have their own Matter ID.The Accused column contains the full name of the accused person and the Date of Birth column gives their date of birth. The Matter ID was assigned in chronological order, so charges brought against an individual that were entered over a period of days will be separated in the list. There are no entry dates given for the records, so users will need to either scan through the entire year's list if they only know the year of the case or estimate the location of the case within the whole year's information.
