About honorary justices

What is an honorary justice?

Bail justices and justices of the peace (collectively known as ‘honorary justices’), are volunteers who perform a range of specialised services that are critical to the functioning of Victoria’s justice system.

Justices of the peace provide document witnessing and certification services to the community both during and outside business hours.

Bail justices primarily work outside business hours and on weekends to conduct hearings in relation to applications for bail or remand. These hearings are conducted in person and virtually.

Honorary justices are appointed by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of the Attorney-General under relevant sections in the Honorary Justices Act 2014.

The Honorary Justice Services Support (HJSS) area is responsible for appointing and managing honorary justice volunteers.

Support and recruitment of honorary justices

To better understand the Department’s support and recruitment of honorary justices, view this organisational chart.

This chart is a visual tool that explains the relationships between different teams and employees within the Department, as well as how honorary justices are recruited.

Honorary justices play a vital role in the community and their work ensures the justice system is accessible and inclusive for everyone, which is why they are featured on the front line of this organisational chart:

Organisational Chart

This organisational chart helps you better understand the Department’s support and recruitment of honorary justices. Honorary justices, justices of the peace and bail justices are featured at top of the chart because of the vital role they play in the community.
The Portfolio of the Attorney-General directly follows underneath. From the Attorney General, to its right, there is a two-way arrow connection to the Governor in Council. The Governor in Council, along with the Attorney-General Recommends the appointment of honorary justices under s7 (justices of the peace) and s14 (bail justices) of the honorary justices Act 2014.
Below the Attorney-General’s Portfolio is the Department’s structure. It begins with the Department’s Secretary which flows into the Integrity, Legal, Law and Reform group, who oversees the Governance & Integrity Policy division and System Governance Branch.
The Deputy Secretary sits in Integrity, Legal Law, and Reform while the executive director sits in Governance & Integrity Policy.
The System Governance branch is under this umbrella which has the director overseeing the branch. Honorary Justice Services Support is the team in this branch which has four teams – Strategy, Performance, Communication and Engagement and Service Delivery.
Honorary Justice Services Support’s purpose is to support honorary justices in Victoria. Linking back to the top, the Governor in Council and Attorney-General shows the connection of how their recommendations involves Honorary Justice Services Support.
Download 'Organisational Chart'