The same docket number will identify related materials such as depositions and other evidence located in the Case Files for that term of court. Over the years there has been no absolute uniformity in the filing and docketing practices of the Clerks of Court who are responsible for maintaining these records. Researchers may encounter considerable variance in the methods by which cases that are held over for more than one term of court or appealed to a higher court are docketed, recorded and filed. The decisions of the inferior courts and courts of general jurisdiction are not published in the collected volumes of court reports of the State. The fact, however, that a case was not appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court and reported in its published decisions, in no way suggests that the controversy was unimportant, nor that the records which document it are without research value.
Judicial records are also a rich primary source of economic and social history.
The case files of the old Circuit Court of Common Pleas, for example, reveal much about the daily lives, circumstances, occupations and concerns of citizens. Return to the Maine State Archives home page. Return to the Department of the Secretary of State home page.