JP shortage as too many not doing job

Tried to find a JP lately? It isn't easy but moves are afoot to correct the situation, writes Andrea Jutson
Your mother overseas is dying, your flight leaves tomorrow, and you need a Justice of the Peace to witness your passport documents. You've already rung nine JPs in the Yellow Pages, and now you feel tears coming on. You've got an answer phone twice, no answer five times, and one couldn't possibly see you before Friday. One of them said she was going shopping. It might sound absurd, but this is a familiar story to many Aucklanders trying to track down a JP. ''I've received a number of calls from the public saying they've rung 10 JPs and none were available,'' says Roger Brookes, registrar of the Auckland Justices of the Peace Association. ''It's not often, but once is too much.'' The record strike-out rate, he says, is 16 in a row. This despite there being 1800 JPs across the country. As JPs are required for passports, visas, applications for jobs or study, citizenship or to sign police search warrants when the courts are shut, the problem is serious. The figures are staggering. In Auckland City, 11,619 people approached a Citizens Advice Bureau between June 2004 and 2005 and asked to see a JP. In the year to June 2006, this almost tripled to 29,743. At Manurewa and New Lynn, they've recently started Saturday JP services to keep up with demand. Part of the problem, says Roger, is that some JPs aren't pulling their weight. Meanwhile, some JPs get overloaded, seeing 800 people a year around jobs and family obligations. Roger can understand that single or elderly JPs (their average age is 72) wouldn't want strangers visiting their homes after dark, but neglecting your duty is not on, he says. ''We want JPs, who are called active JPs, to be active,'' he says. His organisation is trying to get a bill through Parliament making JPs liable to be struck off if they can't function properly. Those who can't come to grips with the legal elements of their role, or are not willing to be available, are unworthy of their position, says association president Ken McKay. Roger speaks reverentially of Warkworth JP George Scandrett, still working until his recent death at 97. Ken wants JPs to be fully trained before they're admitted to the position, just to make sure they're suitable for the job. ''We don't see it as an accolade. It's solely a responsibility.