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Please note that the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service is not involved in the appointment of Justices of the Peace. Justices of the Peace are appointed on the recommendation of Justice of the Peace Advisory Committees under procedures approved by the Scottish Government.
Justices of the Peace deal with summary crimes, such as speeding, careless driving and breach of the peace. They are appointed from the local community and come from a variety of backgrounds.
A Justice of the Peace is a lay judge.
So somebody who doesn't have a legal qualification, they are a member of the community that we live in, and they preside over criminal cases in court.
Typically what we would call, I guess low level criminal cases so minor crimes that are happening out in the community.
The overview is that no two days are the same when you’re a Justice of the Peace.
We can come into a cited court where there’s 160 cases in a day.
So you have a very busy day of dealing with these matters.
A trials court, you might have, start off with 8, 9, 10 trials.
But that will boil down to once things even out to having to listen to 2 or 3 trials in a day.
Listen to the evidence and make a decision at the end of it.
It's really important to have a diverse group, amongst the Justice of the Peace Courts.
The Justice of Peace, they represent the community.
So it's really important that people should take part regardless of what their background is.
I think the most important things when you apply or consider to be a Justice is look at yourself, What can you give?
Because the training you get is excellent.
There is, you know, very in-depth lengthy training.
But you as a person, do you yourself have integrity?
Do you have credibility?
Do you have reliability?
Because those are the things you're going to be judging other people on. I would say if somebody is thinking about applying to be a Justice of the Peace, read the information that we're going to send out.
We're having some open days, open evenings.
Come along, have a chat with us by all means, ask any question you like.
We want to be as open and transparent with everyone as we can.
Think about the skills that we've talked about.
So think about decision making, staying calm under pressure, acting fairly.
It's about how you think and behave and how you work with others.
The Justice of the Peace role is voluntary, you're not paid.
However, the rewards are immense because there's a great satisfaction in terms of giving back to the community, exercising justice, and you're really changing lives.
It's rewarding to the soul.