April 18, 2013
Need a JP? There’s no need to hunt through the phone book or search the internet …
There’s always a JP available at Kingaroy Shoppingworld between noon and 2:00pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The volunteer roster of JPs is administered by Registrar Ben Madden, from Kingaroy Courthouse, and has been running at the mall since about March last year.
There are five on the permanent roster with about six or seven “reserves”.
The JPs have a table located in a quiet spot between the post office and Big W.
On duty today was Karen Pronk, from Wilkesdale.
While southburnett.com.au was there, three people came up with different documents that required a JP to witness.
Karen said the number of “customers” can vary from about four to more than 20 a day.
The service is totally free.
The most common requests involve certified copies of documents, statutory declarations and traffic infringement notices.
The JPs cannot give legal advice but can go through documents to try to explain what has been written.
“And then I say: ‘This is the kind of thing that you have to talk to a lawyer about’,” Karen said.
Ben said there were about 100 JPs located in the greater Kingaroy area.
Any JP that would like to assist on the Shoppingworld roster should contact Ben at the Kingaroy Courthouse on (07) 4164-0230.
