Minutes of the decisions and mediations of justices of the peace can contribute significantly to the history of labor relations between the French Revolution and the 1848 Revolution. Material for this essay was provided by the examination and analysis of the minutes of two Paris district courts: in the Faubourg Saint-Denis (1792-1802), and in the 5th Arrondissement (1830-1834). These minutes are framed to certain standards and norms with respect to the Code for Civil Procedure, therefore allowing for statistical processing. Several elements are of interest. First, the applicants who go before a justice of the peace and the litigations they refer, the respondents’ reactions, as well as the judges’ decisions and their grounds. The role of the justices of the peace in regulating labor relations can be apprehended, and the minutes provide knowledge of the disputes arising between employers and employees. Secondly, there is the vocabulary used to qualify the different parties and the litigations, which sheds light on social and professional classifications, whether they be properly legal classifications (relating to the issue of risk), or produced by the labor world itself, and in this extent by the workers’ social conscience and identity. Studying professional designations also gives indications about the evolution of the division of labor under the angle of technical evolutions and the concentration of a number of employees under the orders of a single silent partner. It also allows for questioning the extent to which crafts were in fact dis-incorporated after the abolition of guilds by the Le Chapelier and d’Allarde Acts. Other issues raised by these minutes are the coverage of risks and subordination in the production process. The hypothesis is that these are major issues in the struggles between employees and employers during that period.