Types of Court Records

Judicial records generally consist of bound Docket Volumes, bound Record Volumes and Case Files, all of which document court actions during each term or session of the courts at all levels. The three types of documentation are closely interrelated: A researcher investigating a particular case first consults the Docket Volume for the appropriate court and term which will provide the assigned docket number for the case. This number will be the identifying number for locating the summary history and disposition of the case which is contained in the Record Volume. The same docket number will identify related materials such as depositions and other evidence located in the Case Files for that term of court.

Over the years there has been no absolute uniformity in the filing and docketing practices of the Clerks of Court who are responsible for maintaining these records. Researchers may encounter considerable variance in the methods by which cases that are held over for more than one term of court or appealed to a higher court are docketed, recorded and filed.

The decisions of the inferior courts and courts of general jurisdiction are not published in the collected volumes of court reports of the State. Such decisions may be reviewed upon appeal by the Supreme Judicial Court; and the decisions of this court are authoritative precedents that are binding upon the lower courts of the State. The fact, however, that a case was not appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court and reported in its published decisions, in no way suggests that the controversy was unimportant, nor that the records which document it are without research value.

Judicial records are also a rich primary source of economic and social history. The case files of the old Circuit Court of Common Pleas, for example, reveal much about the daily lives, circumstances, occupations and concerns of citizens. Specific information about wages, salaries, business practices and other economic data is frequently found in the records of the courts; and an investigation of the case files of a single term of court may provide a fascinating insight into the varied lives of the inhabitants of Maine in a particular time and place.

Page updated December 8, 2005

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Types of Court Records