Court Orders & Maintenance Records

[chrisetty]

A couple of questions for more experienced researchers than me.

A court order for maintenance payments was made in Liverpool in 1928. The defendant was a man from Staffordshire who was represented by a solicitor from Staffordshire.  Would there be any official records in Staffordshire or would they all have remained in Liverpool?

I believe that the payments would be paid into The Post Office by the man and the woman would have a book, like a family allowance book, which they would take to the Post Office for payment. Is there anywhere that records of these books are kept?

Many thanks in advance
Chris

[sharonmx5]

I'm only able to attempt an answer to the first part of your question.  The Court Order, would be at Liverpool rather than Staffordshire, but I'm not sure if a Court Order if this age would still be kept in the Court of issue or in a central repository somewhere.  There is no reason why any records would still  be in Staffordshire.  Solicitors are entitled to destroy their files after 7 years and I know of no solicitors who would still have files of that age.

I think it would have to be one of the parties themselves that asked for a copy of the Order. I think Court Orders are subject, with other papers to a 100 year disclosure rule, although I may be wrong about that.

[GrahamSimons]

Some solicitors have deposited their files in County Record Offices (or similar) - but finding the documents would depend on (1) knowing the name of the solicitor (2) the documents having been deposited (3) the documents having survived the weeding process (4) some cataloguing having been done - so a very long shot.
There just might be a chance of a Press report?

[chrisetty]

Thank you both for your replies, I know it was a long shot. We have the name of the defendant and solicitor, whose company is still trading incidentally, but have no record. Liverpool  documents were destroyed in a fire some years ago so it looks like we are at the end of that particular line.