Record series
Court of Petty Sessions Special Complaints Register
VPRS 16534
1929 - 1969
Not set
Bendigo
Agencies
This record series was created by:
Rochester Courts ( VA4916 ): 1929 - 1967
Agencies responsible for this record series: Court Services Victoria ( VA 5027 ): 2014 - present
Date Range
Series date range: 1929 - 1969
Series in custody:
1929 - 1969
Contents in custody:
1929 - 1969
Function / Content
The special jurisdiction of Courts of Petty Sessions was formally established by the Justices' Act 1928. From this time there were two mechanisms within Courts of Petty Sessions/Magistrates Courts for the redress of civil complaints.The "ordinary jurisdiction empowered the court to determine cases for damages or debts where the precise amount of the claim could be determined according to some objective scale. An example would be the recovery of a debt for goods delivered. Claims brought to court in the ordinary civil jurisdiction often used the system of judgement by default. This system provided that where a respondent did not respond to a summons by giving notice of his or her intention to defend the claim, a judgement could be made in favour of the complainant without a formal court hearing.
In its "special jurisdiction the court itself determined the appropriate amount of redress and operated within a higher jurisdictional limit. Claims for damages arising out of a motor vehicle accident were typically handled in the special jurisdiction. In the special jurisdiction a stipendiary magistrate would preside rather than justices of the peace.
The Magistrates' Courts (Civil Jurisdiction) Act 1979 abolished the distinction between ordinary and special complaints and established a single civil jurisdiction.
A separate register was required to be kept for recording special complaints. Special Complaints Registers are generally in a common format, giving details of the case number, the name of the complainant, the name of the respondent, how the case came to the court (type and date of summons), a description of the cause or proceeding, the decision or order and any remarks. In order to authenticate entries made in the register the presiding stipendiary magistrate signed it at the end of each day.
How to use the records
This record is not available at Public Record Office and is available through the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre, first floor, Bendigo library, 251-259 Hargreaves Street, Bendigo, 3550.Bendigo Regional Archives Centre is an approved as a Place of Deposit for permanent value public records for the region under s14 of the Public Records Act 1973.
Cases were recorded in Special Complaints Registers in chronological order by the date of hearing.
Recordkeeping system
Entries in the volumes were made in chronological order by the date the case came before the court and each case received a consecutive number. An annual numbering system was usually used, thus the case numbering system reverted to 1 at the beginning of each year.The case number was annotated onto all documents lodged with the court during the case. The documents were known as "process" and were placed together to create a case file. In most instances these files were destroyed about fifteen years after the completion of the case to which they related.