Records of the County Court Branch

Records of the County Court Branch and related headquarters files concerning responsibilities for the county court service.

Records of the County Courts Branch are in LCO 8, headquarters files of the Lord Chancellor's Department arising from the overall responsibility of the lord chancellor are in LCO 12 and registers of petitions for protection from process are in LCO 28

Records of individual County Courts are now deposited locally under the Public Records Act 1958.

• Lord Chancellor's Office, County Court Branch, 1922-1971
• Treasury, County Court Department, 1860-1922

Topics

Debt

A central County Court Department of the Treasury was established in 1860 under a superintendent responsible to an administrative division dealing with legal offices. The superintendent was responsible for all Treasury correspondence with or about County Courts and served as accounting officer for their vote, as secretary to the standing Committee of County Court Judges for framing rules and as confidential adviser and secretary for county court business to the Lord Chancellor. In January 1892 the duties attached to the last office were assigned to the permanent secretary to the Lord Chancellor.

The superintendent was also first auditor of sheriffs' accounts for England from 1887 and for Wales from 1900; from 1918 his department also undertook the examination of claims by registration and returning officers at elections. The County Court Department gradually assumed the work of fund management, accounting and examination of accounts formerly carried out by the treasurers of county courts whose offices were allowed to lapse on vacancy.

The County Court Department absorbed the Registry of County Court Judgments, which had been set up under the County Courts Act 1852. The registry was also responsible for the registration of certain orders and judgments relating to admiralty, bankruptcy and equity jurisdictions. A further responsibility of the department was for withdrawals from the workmen's compensation fund.

In July 1922 the County Court Department was transferred to the Lord Chancellor's Office, and from 1 August 1922 the permanent secretary became accounting officer for the County Court vote. The work of auditing sheriffs' accounts and the examination of election accounts remained with the Treasury. The department, as the County Court Branch of the Lord Chancellor's Office, dealt with all matters relating to the central administration and direction of County Courts. Following the Courts Act 1971, however, the branch ceased to exist as a separate unit and its work was absorbed within the reorganised administrative structure of the Lord Chancellor's Office.