Wairarapa Justices of the Peace Association Inc

June 2013

Wairarapa Justices of the Peace Association Inc

President’s message:

Following our JP Council board meeting held in Greytown last night,I wanted to pass onto you that we have set the date and venue for the AGM.

It will be in Masterton, see the further details in this newsletter.The council also took a decision to delay the commencement of a signing centre in Masterton. There was not strong enough support given by members who were prepared to do a monthly turn at manning the site. I thank those that did respond and those that did offer their time - Carterton, Greytown Featherston and Martinborough are also included in this decision.Following the preparation of protocols and guidelines by Federation, there may be an opportunity to partner with the CAB at a later date.

The council has also forwarded six new applications for JP’s that were identified in areas of need.

There will be vacancies occur on the council at our next AGM, and I ask you to consider standing, so that you can contribute on behalf of others.

John R Bunny, President, Wairarapa JP Council

Council for 2012/13

President: John Bunny

Senior vice President: Peter Debney

Junior Vice President: Carol Pilcher

Past President: Diane Chesmar

Registrar/Treasurer: Neil Cameron

Ministerial Training Officer: Beth Rogerson

Judicial Training Officer: Peter Debney

Don Adams, David Baker Christine Brewster Judi Lamb Alistair Plimmer

Mailing Address

Lochiel

RD 2

Masterton 5882

Thanks to Beth for an excellent training session to ensure all JP’s are being kept up to date and also to Solway College for the use of their computer suit

Ministerial Training

If you missed the April training session copies of the power point and hand-out materials are still available: The session covered

KU2D - What’s New?

Appointment of JPs

Induction process

The JP Website

– How to get there

- What’s on it.

New Aide Memoire (August 2012)

Back to Basics

The Induction Assessment

Contact the Registrar, Neil Cameron, or Beth Rogerson (Ministerial Trainer) if you want copies.

Ministerial Manual update

A new page of your manual of ministerial duties is now available, on the topic of Certifying Copies. This page replaces paragraph 2.20, and has been approved by the Secretary for Justice.
You will have received the new page (actually two pages!) in the Autumn issue of Justices' Quarterly - hole-punched and ready for you to insert into your manual.

JP WEBSITE

The website is now the main means of keeping up to date. All of the newest materials including the new Aide Memoire are available on the JP Website which you should visit at regular intervals. It is also increasingly the way the public locate a JP when they need one.

Some Advice for use of the Royal Federation Website

Most problems with logging in are because the JP’s email address is not in the database. You cannot log on using the old username and password from the old website. If necessary, email to log your address.

Some people get the details of their username or password transposed and so get denied access. You can use your email address to login instead of your username, if you wish. It is more accurate to copy and paste usernames and passwords into the appropriate boxes.

You should change your password as soon as you've logged in to something you will remember. It only has to be four characters. You should make use of the forgotten password function on the login page. If it doesn't work for you, it means Royal Federation does not have your email address. You can change your address details to suit you, so the public can find you wherever you are. It does not affect the master database of official records.

We suggest you ensure that your suburb, or the heading under which you are currently listed in Yellow Pages, be entered in the Suburb’ section. You can have a listing for work and a listing for home if you wish, just send an email to : requesting a duplicate entry. You can make use of the availability box in your members’ details section if you are going overseas on holiday, or are otherwise unavailable for a time. If you enter nothing, then there will be nothing displayed on ‘Find a JP’. If you want to 'not show public' for health or other reasons you should contact your Association Registrar first and he will ask the webmaster to do what you want. One of the first things you should do after logging in is to read the two FAQ pages. One in the public section and one in the members section.

Beth Rogerson

Ministerial Trainer

JP Service Centre's

JP Service Centres are becoming increasingly popular around the country and are fully supported by the Ministry of Justice and the Royal Federation.

They have produced a draft best practice guidelines for JP Service Centres which will be very beneficial in ensuring their success. It has been disappointing that JP’s in our area have not seen this as an important part of providing a service to the public. The Council will review this in 2014.

JP Survey - June 2012—June 2013

We are asking all JP’s to collate their JP duties and report on them once a year. This survey will enable us to deliver effective training based on the tasks that are completed in the Wairarapa. It will also give us a data base of the type of work that JP’s are involved in over the whole Wairarapa District.

The survey is attached to this newsletter

Fill it in - copy and paste or print it and SEND

Please respond to this survey by Wednesday 31st July

Email or post:

Carol Pilcher, 33 Daniell Street

Featherston 5710

SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

“The purpose of becoming a JP is not to bestow an honour on a deserving citizen, but to service the public.” (NZRF)

The Royal Federation of NZ Justices Associations Code of Ethics and Conduct requires members to comply with the following requirements –

Remain true to the Oaths of the Office taken on appointment as a JP.

Willingly and courteously carry out the duties required at any reasonable time of the day and night.

Maintain a working knowledge of the duties, responsibilities and obligations of a JP by regularly participating in training sessions provided by their Association or Royal Federation

Previously, when JPs did not wish to do the work they stopped making appointments, removed their JP signs and had their names removed from the Yellow Pages. Under the new Act failure to do this could be seen as neglecting or refusing to perform their function as a JP (s.5D2).

Amendments to the JP Act some 4 years ago was enacted to enable Justices with over ten years service for reasons of e.g. health, inability to attend training sessions, could retire gracefully in the knowledge that they had fulfilled good service to the community. If this applies to you it is recommended you take-up this option.

Please contact the Registrar for details of the application process.

TOPNZ JUDICIAL STUDIES COURSE

In October the Open Polytechnic advised the Royal Federation that it would cease offering the course and that the current semester would be the last. This has given the Royal Federation of the opportunity to rewrite much of the course material, provide it on line and develop an independent assessment process. The possible starting date will be 2014.

Annual General Meeting and Dinner Thursday 21st November @ 7pm– Copthorn Solway Park

Diary this date now – more information to come in the September newsletter

From Denise Hutchins JP

Central Region Representative

RNZFJA

National Projects

Accreditation: The Board considered a further iteration of the Accreditation Programme developed by a working group following the National Conference Workshop in early March. The Board agreed that the Accreditation Programme should ‘go live’ in early 2014 and as such information will be available to Associations in the not too distant future.

Professional Development Programme: The Board agreed to the final funding proposal seeking sponsorship for this programme. Funding will be sought as soon as possible in order that the initial programme can get underway later this year.

Revision of the Education Policy: changes were agreed to the national education policy which includes a retiring date for bench sitting Justices. This has been set at 75 years. Further information and discussion about the changes will be part of this year’s regional conferences.

2013 Regional Conferences

A reminder of the dates for the regional conferences this year, Palmerston North on Saturday 3rd August and Nelson on Saturday 17th August. I would welcome suggestions from Associations as to the content for each of the conferences. One thing I will make sure of is that there is sufficient time for discussion on key topics.

2014 National Conference – Waitangi, Friday 28th February – Sunday 2 March 2014

Planning is well in hand for our Bi-centennial celebration in Waitangi in early 2014. Given the special nature of this gathering I would encourage Associations to be thinking about how they could get as many representatives from their within their ranks to attend as possible. I appreciate the distance and thus the cost associated with the event but some pre planning now may make it possible!

Regards

This is an article from the Wellington Justices of the Peace Association Newsletter. It is very relevant to us and especially in light of our Ministerial training held in April

CERTIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS – An interesting letter from Ann Nolan JP of Foxton:

During our lifetime as Justices of the Peace there are some interesting questions arise in life, and recently I have been faced with a challenge that may interest other Justices in this world of advancing technology and would like to hear others views. A reputable company for whom I do some certification

of documents asked me to certify a documents that had been scanned to them as it was required here in NZ urgently by a Government Department.

As I was not prepared to do so, I was given the file of the person presenting the document and noted there were a number of other documents which were originals and bore the applicant’s photograph and his signature, as did this particular scanned document.

In view of the urgency with which the document was required, a Skype contact was set up with the person and I was able to speak with him, sight thedocument closely and ask him the usual questions one would ask. I was completely satisfied that this document was one and the same document that had been scanned and, in the interests of common sense, and taking into account all the other factors such as:

• The original documents already held on file with his photograph and signatures,
• The background of the person, the requirement of urgency for the Govt. Dept.
• That I was satisfied the document he showed and we spoke about was the same document
• This document was going to a Dept. which had easy access to determine whether or not it was authentic as opposed to original and would certainly be doing so anyway.

Taking all into account I was satisfied this came within my brief of being satisfied that it was the same document and so I certified as having sighted the original which I had done albeit via Skype..

To me this brings in two questions:

The first and foremost is with advancing technologies are we keeping up to speed with them, and was it correct to use common sense, supported by other factors, as a guide. Secondly there are some misapprehensions by certain people and organisations that a document certified as being a copy of the original by anyone means it is an authentic document, when this is not the case. It is not the job of a JP to test and research whether the document he/she is signing is fraudulent or not. In my case the document has been proven to be a perfectly legal document, but there is still the belief in some areas that we have actually tested the document andchecked up on whether or not it is fraudulent, when this is not the case.

The basic approach is that you should view the document on line and incorporate the fact that you have done so in the wording you use on the copy. This usually means abandoning a stamp with standard text on it, especially if whatyou see on line is simply a scanned version of an original that you cannot access. Depending on the circumstances you could write:

“This is a true copy of a document that I have sighted on line.”

(You could insert

“Original” if it is not simply a scanned attachment.) In some circumstances it could be appropriate to write:

“This is a true copy of a document that was presented to me as an original.”

This goes to show that there can be more to certifying copies than it may seem.

Replacement badges, warrants and certificates

Please note that if you need another badge (or have lost the one you had), or need a new warrant or certificate, these can be arranged through Neil—our Registrar. A new badge will cost you $12.50, but there is no charge for replacement warrants (now in plastic card form the same size as a credit card) or certificates.

John Bunny (President) Mstn 377

Peter Debney (Senior VP) Mstn

Carol Pilcher (Junior VP) Fstn 308

Neil Cameron (Registrar) Mstn 372

Don Adams (Judicial) Mstn 372

Beth Rogerson (Trainer) Mstn 377

David BakerMstn 370

Christine Brewster Mstn 377

Diane Chesmar Mstn 377

Judi Lamb Ctn 379

Alistair Plimmer Fstn 216

Wairarapa JP Association Inc

Justice of the Peace Survey

June 2012 – June 2013

Name:
Please record the work you have done in the last year.
If we do not hear from you – we will assume no JP duty has been undertaken during this period.
MINISTERIAL DUTIES / TOTAL / COMMENTS
Affidavits
Certify Documents
Witnessing signatures
Certify Electronic copies
Citizenship
Complaints
Declarations
NZ Passport
Marriage dissolution
18+ card
Other: (please specify)
JUDICIAL DUTIES / We do not require this information due to the change in the Act and the appointment of Issuing Warrant Officers
Court Panel * Data collected monthly direct from Court records by Court Rosterer and forwarded to the Royal Federation.

Please return by 20th August to:

Carol Pilcher

33 Daniell Street

Featherston

5710