About NJC’s Registrars
The engine room of the Centre, the Neighbourhood Justice Centre’s Registry team performs the administrative tasks that keep the Centre's courts and tribunals functioning.
As importantly, Registrars are often the staff whom clients typically first encounter, and so the team is often the bridge that first connects clients who present with complex needs to the Centre's support services.
Core functions
The team’s daily core functions encompass:
- Manage court lists and records of court outcomes
- Provide procedural advice to clients
- Provide general administrative support to the Magistrate (including in-court support).
The team also performs other administrative functions including but not restricted to:
- Receive and process family violence/personal safety intervention order applications, and process court order documentation
- Receipt of payment of court imposed fines (that have not been ordered by the court to be collected by Fines Victoria)
Registrars also perform quasi-judicial functions:
- Issue summons
- Issue charge and warrants.
Community justice registrars
The work and collegiate spirit of Registry are underpinned by a set of five guiding principles.
The team developed these principles and regularly critically reviews the relevance and application of these foundation stones.
- Practice cross-jurisdictional staff knowledge and skills
The registrars work across criminal and civil divisions of the NJC's Magistrates’ Court, the criminal division of its Children’s Court, and two tribunals that sit at the NJC.
Registrars continue to develop skills and knowledge across these jurisdictions by drawing on the expertise of other staff, including the legal representatives who work across these jurisdiction.
- Adaptive leadership strategy
Adaptive leadership is a practice used in situations without known solutions.
As required, Registrars invoke this stratagem to mobilise team members to step outside their defined positions in the hierarchy so they use their skills and knowledge to solve issues with greater freedom and alacrity.
This principle accords with the principle of community justice that states that authority can, as required ‘decentralise’; that is, people should have the ability to step outside their defined roles if required to solve problems.
- Delegated decision-making authority
While the Registry team is hierarchical, delegated decision-making model gives members the opportunity to develop new skills, assume greater responsibilities, free senior manager time, and improve communications and trust up and down the hierarchy.
In action, this principle provides the Centre with a reserve of skilled professionals who can take on additional responsibilities if and when required.
- Enduring commitment to community
Working in a community justice centre challenges registrars to have a deep understanding of the social conditions and characteristics of the community they serve.
This principle fosters respect and compassion for the community, two values that are of particular importance when working with vulnerable and marginalised members of society.
- Problem-solving ethos and innovative practice
Registry plays a role in the overall solutions-focused ethic of the NJC.
Registrars can, for instance, refer clients who presents with complex needs to one of the onsite treatment services, or explore ways to use technology to enhance service delivery.
Embedding the problem-solving ethos as a core principle acts as a launch pad for seeing problems as opportunities for improvement.
Principles underpinning best practices
To meet the above principles, the NJC registry delivers:
- Professional best practice
- Responsive, friendly and flexible service that maintains the highest levels of respect & courtesy to clients
- Timeliness in service delivery with dedication of appropriate resources in particular to VOCAT and Intervention order matters
- Helpful, collaborative working relationships with all court-related services and organisations.