VPRS 8086 Card Register to Criminal Trial Briefs [Orange Series]

Full description

This series comprises index cards recording the allocation of file numbers to the files in VPRS 30 Criminal Trial Briefs. 

This series controls the arrangement of VPRS 30 and was used to enable retrieval of and access to the records in that series.

There were two concurrent series created – the Orange Series (this series, VPRS 8086) and the Green Series (VPRS 21629). These names refer to the colours of the cards. The Orange Series enabled access to the records in VPRS 30 through the file number, while the Green Series is arranged alphabetically by the surname of the accused. 

Until 1961, file numbers were allocated to VPRS 30 from VPRS 3524 Criminal Trial Brief Register II. Use of the register was discontinued at the start of 1962 in favour of this card system, in which a separate card was generated for each individual file. 

Each card contains the file number in the top left corner, as well as summary details of the case including:

• Name of the accused
• Charges
• Location of the trial
• Date
• Plea
• Verdict
• Sentence

The file numbers from 1962-1971 consist of an annual single number in which each file is numbered sequentially within each year: thus the first file created in 1962 is numbered 1962/1. From 1971, the year prefix was changed to a letter: the first file from 1971 is A/1, from 1972 it’s B/1 etc. 

All files relating to incomplete cases were allocated a new number at the start of a new calendar year. 

This series was discontinued in 1997 when a new computer-based control system was introduced (VPRS 14415). Prior to this, there were several years of overlap where both the card register and the Case Management System Database (VPRS 14427), introduced in 1987, were used. They both record the same system of file numbers.

VPRS 30 also ended in 1996 and was replaced by VPRS 14414 Prosecution and Litigation Records.