The General Offences Act from 2003 stipulates that on the day of its entry into force, when misdemeanour bodies and courts start operating, misdemeanour judges and Senate of the Republic of Slovenia for misdemeanours stop working. According to the new Act, the misdemeanour organs are administrative and other national bodies and bearers of public authorities, which exercise control over the enactment of laws and regulations determining the offences, and bodies of selfadministrative local communities, which are authorised with special decrees to decide on offences; the courts are divided into first and second degree courts for offences. The power to pass verdicts on the offences in the Republic of Slovenia has newly been given to local courts as first-degree courts for offences and higher courts as second-degree courts for offences. The cases will be tried by judges from these courts. The archives of the present misdemeanour judges will be taken over by local courts, and those of the Senate of the Republic of Slovenia for misdemeanours will be passed on to higher courts. 1st January 2005 is an important milestone in the organisation and operation of bodies in charge of offence procedures, and this will show in the processing of archival materials. For a proper evaluation it is necessary to know how the discussed bodies were established, how they developed and how they are organised.