Rule 79.Books and records kept by the Prothonotary

Rule 79(a) requires the Prothonotary to keep a docket covering every civil action filed, with each action given a consecutive file number that gets noted on the folio where the action's first entry appears. Everything that happens in the case afterward — pleadings, motions, briefs, and other papers filed, process issued and its returns, appearances, orders, verdicts, and judgments — gets noted chronologically on that folio. The notation itself stays brief, but it has to show what was filed or what writ issued, the substance of each court order, and the substance of each return on process; noting an order or judgment also has to include the date the notation itself was made.

Rule 79(b) requires more specific entries for judicial action as it happens. Oral argument gets logged with its date, the judge's name, and the subject matter. A trial's entry includes the date, the judge's name, and the elapsed trial time. A verdict or judgment gets the date and the judge's name. An opinion's entry includes its filing date, subject matter, the judge's name, and — where true — the fact that the opinion was filed without oral argument.

Beyond the docket itself, Rule 79(c) requires the Prothonotary to keep whatever other books and records the Superior Court's judges or the Superior Court Administrator direct, from time to time, so the docket isn't necessarily the only record the office maintains.