A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

Settlement ... or by the Company to the go~ernor."~ Later, procedures were
outlined in minutes of the general court. The summons, or writ, initiated
proceedings by stating the "particulan of the plaintiff's daimn and directing the
defendant to appear at court on the day indicated and answer to the claim. The
process of the Court was served by constables ...? In criminal matters the
proceedings themselves generally appeared under the title "The Public lnterest
versusn the accused or "The Public Weffare versusn the accused. "The Queen
versusn or "Regina versusn the accused first appeared during the 1860s.
At a General Court held in London, 1839, the company introduced
important changes in the judicial system." One of the changes was creation of
the office of Recorder of Rupert's Land. The first recorder was appointed the
same year, with instructions to take charge of the legal Main of the colony.
Although Adam Thom was simply to sit as a regular member of the General
Quarterly Court, in practice he soon became the most influential individual on
the court.75 This rnay have been partly due to the fad that Thom was a trained
lawyer, the settlemmt's first. Other changes introduced by the company in 1839
were:
written records of al1 the judicial proceedings of the
Petty Courts were to be kept; defendants in such
Courts were to be summoned in writing; judgements
in default of appearance might be given against the
defendant; and the magistrates might suspend
exewtion of a judgement for a period not exceeding
four months; reopen a case on the defendant paying
costs, and issue warrants of distress or imprisonment
on the application of the successful party."