JPs Should not be Paid for Services – Palmer

Carol Palmer, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, has reiterated that Justices of the Peace (JPs) should not be paid for authenticating documents and informed that the Ministry would be embarking on a public education campaign later this month to, among other things, reinforce this fact.
“No Justice of the Peace is to be paid for services rendered as a Justice of the Peace. The Office of Justice of the Peace is a public office and it does not attract remuneration of any type,” she stated.Mrs. Palmer was speaking at the presentation of seals to JPs in St. James at the Half Moon Hotel in Rose Hall on November 10.
St. James represents the 12th parish where JPs have received seals of office since the instruments were made legal on August 30. The JPs in the remaining parishes should receive their seals by November 18 and Mrs. Palmer warned that any JP, who signed a document without using his or her seal after this date, would be committing an illegal act.
“So, the moment you receive your seal today it is a legal instrument. In fact, come the 18th of November, we are going to start a campaign to advise all persons in the Jamaican society that a Justice of the Peace who authenticates documents without the use of this embossed seal is not properly acting for the people of Jamaica,” she stated.
Mrs. Palmer told the JPs, that while the government had spent $6.7 million to acquire the seals, they would have to bear the cost for replacement, if they lose or damage them. “You are to know where your seal is 24/7”, she stated.
In her remarks, President of the St. James Lay Magistrates Association, Dorothy Hanson, told the JPs that the seals were not trophies to be put away but that they should be used and used wisely, to the benefit of the citizens that they served.
There are approximately 452 JPs listed in St. James.