Catalogue description Assizes: North and South Wales Circuit, Chester and North Wales Division: Returns of Assize Civil Business

Copies of returns of the North and South Wales Circuit, Chester and North Wales Division sent to the Home Office in connection with the compilation of civil judicial statistics.

This series consists of bundles of loose copy returns with associated correspondence, kept by the clerk of assize of the Chester and North Wales Division of the North and South Wales Circuit. The returns are a complete run for the period 1867 to 1912.

The statistics are entered on pre-printed forms. For the period 1867 to 1894 the forms show the number of proceedings on circuit at each assize; the nature of suits tried or otherwise disposed of in court; the courts from which the causes were sent for trial; the result in each case; and the total amounts of money recovered.

For the period 1895 to 1912 the format of the return is different, as a result of the findings of a departmental committee appointed by the lord chancellor to revise the civil portion of the judicial statistics of England and Wales. The committee recommended that changes be made to the form of return from 1895 onwards. Correspondence between the Home Office and the clerk of assize concerning these changes is included. The revised pre-printed form contains four returns lettered A to D: A is "Proceedings and state of business on circuit"; B is "Proceedings at each assize town. Actions entered and tried, amounts recovered, and number of days judge sat"; C is "Fees received on circuit"; and D is "Actions tried or otherwise disposed of on circuit: nature and results".

Returns of business sent to the Lord Chancellor's Department for incorporation in the published Civil Judicial Statistics (records contained in this series span the period 1938 to 1970) are contained in (county courts and district registries: annual statistics):

J 94

Justices of Assize, North Wales Circuit, 1830-1945