Court Services Victoria

Full description

Court Services Victoria (CSV) (VA 5027) was established on 1 July 2014 by the Court Services Victoria Act 2014. Section 8 of the Act states that:

"The function of Court Services Victoria is to provide, or arrange for the provision of, the administrative services and facilities necessary or desirable,

(a) to support the performance of the judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative functions of
(i) the Supreme Court; and
(ii) the County Court; and
(iii) the Magistrates' Court; and
(iv) the Children's Court; and
(v) the Coroners Court; and
(vi) VCAT; and

(b) to enable the Judicial College of Victoria [JCV] to perform its functions."

The individual courts, VCAT and JCV remain separate entities, guided by their own enabling legislation, and maintain responsibility for direction their individual functions. Each jurisdiction has its own Chief Executive Officer (CEO), while CSV's CEO has responsibility for managing the day-to-day operations and staff for CSV.

The governing body of CSV is the Courts Council, which directs the strategy and governance of CSV, and importantly, it enshrines a governance structure for the courts and VCAT that is independent of the direction of executive government.

Jurisdiction Services is a central corporate division of CSV that provides the full range of mandatory and value adding services to each of the jurisdictions, as well as CSV wide accountabilities. The primary role of Jurisdiction Services is to support the jurisdictions, VCAT and JCV to achieve their strategic and mandated roles and objectives.