Tasmanian court records
Introduction
Court records can be a valuable source of information for family historians. Early trial records can be scant but newspaper accounts often compensate. The following should prove useful for criminal and civil prosecutions.
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What is online?
Lower Court records
The majority of lower court petty session records have been digitised up to 1900. Do an agency search for your district (e.g. Bothwell Lower Court) and then look for ‘petty sessions’ in the list of records. To find lower court districts, you can start by putting just “lower court” in the agency title field.
Supreme Court records
Crown Law Criminal Cases
- 1853-1958 Registers of criminal cases prosecuted by the Crown (AB693). Each register contains an index. These are useful for the period after 1916 when the Crown Law case files (SGD13) change to a file number arrangement.
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What else is there?
- For Lower Court records not yet digitised search the archives records – put “lower court” in the title field.
Criminal cases
Crown Law records
Apart from being of interest in their own right, these are useful because the Supreme Court criminal files (SC81) before 1951 have not survived.
Crown Law prosecutes cases in the Supreme Court.
- 1858-1973 Registers of criminal cases prosecuted by the Crown (AB693). Each register contains an index. These are useful for the period after 1916 when the Crown Law case files (SGD13) change to a file number arrangement.
- 1858-1997 Criminal prosecution files (SGD13) Arranged chronologically until 1916 when they adopt a file number arrangement. The early period is incomplete.
Supreme Court records
- 1824-1833 then 1838-1923 Registers of prisoners tried in criminal cases (SC41)
- 1824-1947 Minutes of proceedings in criminal cases, various centres, including Norfolk Island (SC32) These contain brief entries stating the offence, the jurors and the sentence
- 1846-1860 Alphabetical list of people tried in criminal cases (SC43) This is a useful register covering all districts
- 1941/1951-1983 Criminal files (SC81) There are only 5 surviving cases before 1951 so the records essentially date from then. The file arrangement is by indictment number for 1951-1957, and then they adopt an annual filing arrangement (for example #25/1969)
- 1983-1957 Register of indictments (AD875). For the period 1951-1957 this volume serves as an index and register to the criminal files (SC81). The Supreme Court keeps the registers and indexes after 1957
Civil cases
- 1826-1904 Register of judgements in civil proceedings (SC139) There are various indexes covering this category of records.
- 1824-1835 Minutes of proceedings in civil cases (SC26)
- 1836-1920 Minutes of proceedings in civil cases in term (SC27) These give the essentials of civil cases.They provide the names of the parties, and variously the nature of the dispute, the jurors, the witnesses, the result of the case and the penalties. The volumes are of limited value but useful considering the civil case files (SC95) do not begin until 1939.
- 1836-1934 Minutes of proceedings in civil cases out of term (SC28) See previous comment (SC27).
- 1843-1945 Minutes of proceedings in civil cases, Launceston and Northern Centres (SC29)
- 1824-1899 Affidavits and associated papers about civil cases (SC114)
- 1920-1950 Judges’ copies of papers in civil cases (SC510) These might prove useful for the period before 1939 where civil case files do not exist.
- 1934-1979 Registers and indexes to civil cases (SC82)
- 1939-1980 Civil case files (SC95) The Civil Procedure Act became effective in 1934. However, the earliest surviving case files date to 1939.
- 1967-1979 Burnie District Registry civil case files (SC544) Annual numbering arrangement.
- 1947-1975 Launceston District Registry civil case files (SC325) Annual numbering arrangement.
- 1831-1934 Rules and orders in civil cases (Civil judgement books)(SC553) See the register of judgements in civil proceedings (C139) above for volume and page references or contact the Supreme Court for period after 1904.
- 1834-1980 Copies of rules and orders in civil cases (Civil judgement books) (SC143) See the register of judgements in civil proceedings (C139) above for volume and page references or contact the Supreme Court for period after 1904.
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Notes
Only files older than 75 years from today are available without permission from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
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Related
- Trove for accounts of court appearances. For the Colonial period these accounts are often more informative than the surviving Court records.
- Guide to prison records
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What can I find from other organisations?
- New South Wales criminal jurisdiction search N.S.W. governed Tasmania until 1825. This site is valuable for early Tasmanian criminal cases.
- The Prosecution Project – Tasmanian Courts: this site hosted by Griffith University gives a great overview of the court system in Tasmania and the ability to search 150 years of Australian criminal trial records.
- legislation.tas.gov.au – Tasmanian legislation online for searching copies of Tasmanian legislation passed after 1 February 1997.
- Australian Legal Information Institute – Tasmanian legislation from 1826 and Tasmanian case law from 1824
- Department of Justice
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