Court of Record

Conforms to the first four (4) requirements:

1. power to fine or imprison for contempt
2. keeps a record of the proceedings
3. proceeding according to the common law (not statutes or codes)
4. the tribunal is independent of the magistrate (judge)
5. generally has a seal (optional)

You will only find all the above items in Black’s Law Dictionary, First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. The Fifth and later editions only show items 1 & 2. The powers-that-be could not eliminate items 3 & 4 from the law, so they eliminated them from the reference books.

As a general rule-of-thumb, older dictionaries are law-oriented; modern ones are more policy-oriented.