Addressing case times and space issues
The Justice Minister last week announced that an extension to the law courts building in Strait Street Valletta will be created to accommodate four new halls and 25 offices.
About time.
There were not enough court halls in the Maltese courts to accommodate all the judges and magistrates, thus meaning that halls were shared. Increasing this number would mean that more judges and magistrates would be able to hold sittings simultaneously, so more cases could be held in a day.
In addition, the courts were often quite overcrowded, with people spilling out into the corridors.
Eventually, more members of the judiciary will need to be appointed, and more court halls will be required to accommodate the new judges and magistrates.
It remains to be seen whether four such halls would be enough.
But this is not the only thing that should be done. A better system of appointing cases is also required to avoid overcrowding and time wasting. Now, during COVID-19, this issue has mostly been solved, but prior to this one would find 10, possibly even more cases all planned for the 9am time slot for example, rather than each case having a specific slot.
The court administration needs to take a long, hard look at the court operations and see where improvement can be made. For example, the courts could also make far better use of technology than it does today.
Some have also suggested the possibility of setting up specialised tribunals for less important cases, to reduce the burden on the main courts. This is something worth looking into.
There are other moves being made to reduce the time it takes for a court case to conclude. It is unacceptable that some people have been waiting years for their court cases to come to a conclusion. This issue, however, is not solely one that lies on the shoulders of the judiciary. Sometimes, lawyers will drag out a court case as it benefits one of the partys. This is an situation that is manya-time overlooked and the judiciary tend to get the blame.
Another problem that the judiciary face is that there simply aren’t enough judges and magistrates to cope with the workload.
This can simply be addressed, however currently a court case is ongoing regarding the judicial appointments system in Malta. The case is being heard by the European Court of Justice.
Before more members of the judiciary are appointed, that case should conclude. But once done, more lawyers should be appointed to the bench. Although, it should be said that any questions about the impartiality of the judiciary due to the appointments system should be addressed regardless of the case outcome in order to ensure the highest possible levels of trust in the judiciary.