A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

chronological facts of the case, names of counsel, reasoning, and decision.
The judges' notebooks complete a set of Equity records that is
remarkable for its wholeness and wntinuity. General Index, Equity, although
compiled nearly twenty-five years after inception of the court, provides excellent
accessibility to Equity records. There are some errors in the index, but they
appear to be few, and some of them have been corrected within the volume.
Registers of pleadings are exceptionaliy weli maintained and complete. Minutes
of proceedings, unfortunately, are very limited, but decrees compensate for this
weakness by furnishing judges' reasonings and decisions. Financial records are
not extant before 1879 but money ledgers and a cash book after that date
provide a picture of the amounts that were associated with different types of
actions and decisions. Letter books reveal the breadth of Equity's influence and,
at the same time, the day-to-day personal effort involved in creation of Equity
records. Case files are extensive and more than ninety-five percent complete,
although their imperfect sequence may require the researcher's perseverance if
particuiar files are desired. Last of all, judges' notebooks show how equitable
reasoning was applied during two critical periods of Equity's functioning. The
excellent organization of Equity records facilitates acœss, both physical and
intellectual. The comprehensiveness of Equity records rnakes them meaningful,
as sources of particular case information and as resources for historical and
other studies. Equity records provide a valuable reflection of justice and society
in the early days of Manitoba.