NRS-16618 | Depositions [Ivanhoe Court of Petty Sessions]

Full description

These papers are those of the proceedings of the Court, in its jurisdiction over less serious criminal matters and minor civil complaints. Cases are numbered and/or listed as they are received by the Court although usually some time elapses before a case is heard.
Initially the papers were given an annual running number with charge and summons cases being numbered in separate sequences. The papers are arranged by these numbers and therefore also roughly arranged by date. This arrangement continues until the 1950s. From that time each case was given a running number with an alphabetical prefix. The papers are filed by this number regardless of when the case is heard. The arrangement changes again in the 1960s.

Papers for each day are tied into bundles, which are usually prefaced by a list of the cases set down to be heard that day. The list details case number (usually a daily number), name of defendant, offence, name of informant, and result. In later years it also gives the date of birth of the defendant, tape number and counter number. The cases are listed by category which includes: Charge cases (fresh and remand), Summons cases, Children's Court cases, Wardens Court cases, Licensing Court cases, Liquor Court cases, Small Debts matters and Industrial Magistrates Court cases. Larger, busier courts often created whole bundles of traffic matters. Some courts also hold records of cases heard before Justices of the Peace; these often related to drunkenness.

Papers for each case may include charge and summons sheets, statements of evidence presented to the Court, bench sheets, arrest forms and police interviews, pre-sentence reports, bail papers, community service orders, notices of appeal to higher courts, warrants, interview transcriptions, records of proceedings, sworn statements, subpoenas, Certificates of convictions, accident reports, information (general purpose) papers, noxious plant and animal notifications, declarations, correspondence, receipts, applications for summons, language sheets, fingerprint records, records of exhibits, occasionally exhibits, sureity forms relating to fines and recognizances.

After 1974 country Courts of Petty Sessions commenced tape recordings of proceedings. From then transcriptions began to be made of only a number of cases in certain circumstances: committals for trial at a higher Court; if an appeal was to be lodged; or if there was a request for a copy of the proceedings by either of the parties involved.

The previous complete paper record began to be replaced by a charge and summons sheet, transcriptions of certain cases, and the tape recordings of proceedings.

In 1980 the continuing destruction of the tape recordings was authorised (1) and in 1995 authorisation was given for Depositions 1983 onwards to no longer be required as State archives (2)

Endnotes
(1) Archives Authority of NSW. Disposal Recommendation DR 2517, 1980.
(2) Archives Authority of NSW. Disposal Recommendation DR 5342, 1995.