Subseries - Case file registers (indexes)

1 m of textual records, 4 reels of microfilm

The first volume in this subseries was added to the Commissioner of Public Records( collection after the publication of the 1886 inventory. Some subsequent volumes were transferred when the Archives opened in 1930. The remaining volumes with accession numbers were part of a transfer of over 360 volumes to the Archives from the Law Courts in 1998. Some volumes exhibit evidence that they have replaced earlier volumes, with the same content, that had deteriorated due to use and poor paper quality.

Series forms part of the Official record books series of the Supreme Court at Halifax sub-fonds and consists of registers used by the Supreme Court at Halifax to index case numbers by plaintiff and defendant as they were assigned. The indexing is chronological and then alphabetical by the first letter of a party's last name. Prior to the start of case numbering in 1861 these registers were used as indexes to the cause books which recorded the commencement of cases. Some subsequent index volumes record case number as well as the page number reference to the cause book. Prior to 1861 the indexes refer only to cause book page numbers. The registers are independent of the cause books for which they act as indexes and have been divided by years for convenience. Indeed, book 14 starts with the notation, "new millennium - new book." Overlapping time periods probably indicate that some volumes were copied to replace others which due to use needed replacement.
In 1928 the court administration office changed to an index card system. Subsequent to 1952 the cards were photographically copied into index books which were microfilmed by the NS Archives in the period 2011 to 2013.