Rule 36.6.Minutes and Final Record

Rule 36.6 sets up the permanent archive of the superior court’s work. Every matter — once it is finished — gets recorded into a combined set of books or microfilm records the rule calls the Minutes Book, the Writ or Pleading Record, and the Final Record, together known as the Minutes and Final Record. Adoption cases are left out of that requirement — the rule does not say why, though adoptions receive distinct handling elsewhere in Rule 36 as well.

Once a matter is recorded this way, the clerk does not have to keep the original paper file forever. The rule allows the original to be destroyed according to the state’s retention schedule, or moved off-site for storage, because the recorded version now serves as the durable record of what happened in the case.

This is the rule that makes it possible for courthouses to manage decades of filings without drowning in paper. The Minutes and Final Record becomes the long-term reference point, while the original documents can be culled once they have served their purpose.