The very nature of court actions leads to an administration nightmare. In Summary Cause actions, less than £1,500.00, court staff have to record a great deal of information including parties to the action, their addresses and the sum sued for. As the case progresses through the court additional information has to be entered against each case such as when decree can be granted, when it actually is granted and whether or not a defender has made any representation to the court. All this has to be entered in columns -and because so much information has to be entered for each case the number of columns is necessarily large. No small wonder that the "court books" take on Dickensian nature.
Not so long ago when I examined the books I was amazed by their sheer size and volume – often with handwritten script entries being made up.
