Magistrates Court records (FOI)

​Request

Please can you tell me how far back Jersey Magistrate Court Records go back to? For example, if a request was make to revisit a case and a conviction that happened in 1975 could information still be found on it, in Jersey Records?

Response

The name of the Police Court was changed to the Magistrate’s Court on 1st April 1997: in this response we use the term Magistrate’s Court to refer to the earlier versions of the Court as well.

There are records covering the whole period since establishment of the Magistrate’s Court in 1853 which are administered by the Magistrate’s Court Greffe and retained forever at the Jersey Archive. The form of the records may vary depending on the period covered but they provide a record of all decisions of the Court. Case files submitted to the Court are not retained except for selected cases which have a wider historical interest.

Magistrate’s Court records are not open until they have been held for more than 100 years. Information in the records may be accessed by applying to the Magistrate’s Court Greffe, who will determine whether any disclosure is possible. Disclosure may require permission from the Court and will have to comply with any statutory limitations on disclosure, particularly under the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Jersey) Law 2001 and the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.