New law aims to cut pending court cases

A backlog of court cases that have been awaiting judgment for over five years is expected to be drastically cut down thanks to a new law currently before parliament.

Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry for Justice, who is piloting the Bill, said its aim was to "reduce suffering and long waiting by the public and have a lighter case load at the law courts".

Among other provisions, the new law will enable owners of small and medium enterprises to collect their dues in a faster, less expensive manner.

"If we let things stay as they are, the chances are that the courts will come to a standstill. This is something nobody seems to be taking into account because it seems none of the stakeholders keep an eye on the statistics and the trends of pending cases. One thousand cases have been pending for over 10 years," Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

In spite of the fact that the number of magistrates and judges has increased - the complement is now 35 plus the six chairmen of the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) - the cost of filing a case has gone up considerably and the backlog of cases has not eased.

Once the Bill is approved by Parliament, it will become mandatory to refer motor traffic disputes not exceeding Lm5,000 and not involving physical disability, as well as condominium disputes, to the Arbitration Tribunal in order to lighten the burden at the SCT.

The Bill is meant to amend the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure, Cap. 12 and other laws relating to civil procedure.

Asked to explain the reasoning behind the Bill, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said there is a growing number of cases before the SCT. On the other hand, the number of cases before the Magistrates' Court and in First Hall of the superior court is in decline.

The SCT deals with cases involving sums of up to Lm1,500 while the Magistrates' Court deals with cases involving sums up to Lm5,000.

"The problem is that the case load at the SCT cannot be handled properly because the SCT's time is, in part, taken up by cases where the defendant fails to submit a defence," Dr Mifsud Bonnici explained.

"Much of this time at the SCT is taken up by motor traffic accidents. So the aim will be to transfer these cases to the Arbitration Centre."

The crux of the matter, Dr Mifsud Bonnici continued, is that while, in general, cases involving sums of up to Lm900 used to take up to two years to be decided, a new pattern is emerging where cases are starting to take up to three and even four years to be concluded.

There are 500 - 1,000 court cases involving small amounts of money "trapped" in the superior court that have been waiting for a judgment for anything between four and 15 years. People whose case involves less than Lm5,000 but which has been stuck in the superior courts for years will, through the new law, have the option to submit a note before the court so the Magistrates' Court will decide their lawsuit.

"The Magistrates' Court decides cases faster than the superior courts. And, frankly, we should go for an objective that would give chairmen in the SCT time to decide the more complicated cases.

"About four months ago, a law suit was decided by a judge on a traffic accident where the value was Lm500 and the case had been pending for 10 years. Such a delay is unacceptable."

Does this Bill mean that the courts are not functioning as they should?

"That's not quite correct. Instead of getting everyone to file a case in court and get a court judgment, we are trying to create certain fast tracks that will allow claimants to obtain an executive title in a speedier manner and, thus, reduce the work load."

There are judges who perform well and others who do not perform so well. There was a judge last year who decided 500 cases but others decided far fewer, the parliamentary secretary pointed out.

"It is simply not acceptable that 46 per cent of our law suits in the superior court have been pending for over five years. And likewise, it is not acceptable that 5,000 out of the more than 14,000 cases in all the civil courts have been pending for over five years and about 82 per cent of these 5,000 cases lie in the First Hall and the Magistrates' Court.

"So we either leave things as they stand until the courts stagnate completely or else adopt measures to ease the problem."

The setting up of the Arbitration Tribunal was meant to entice lawyers to suggest to their clients to take their case to it.

The problem, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said, was that the people did not have confidence in the tribunal because until December 2002 one could not appeal against an award handed down by the tribunal. But now a person can appeal to the superior court.

By referring one's case to the Arbitration Tribunal, one would be reducing the legal costs by one fourth. "Another advantage will be that the arbitrator can agree with both parties as to the date and venue because the venue does not have to be the Arbitration Centre," he said.

"The verdict delivered by the Arbitration Tribunal has the same value as a court judgment. What people are really interested in is to have their case decided fairly, justly and speedily. Going to court is a frustrating, time-consuming and costly exercise," the parliamentary secretary said.

The new law will make it possible for a claimant to file a judicial letter against a defaulter where he or she is asked to pay up for products sold or services rendered.

If the receiver of the judicial letter challenges the creditor, then, if the creditor would want to take the matter further on, he would have to file a lawsuit before the Small Claims Tribunal. But if the debtor does not reply, the letter becomes an executive title through which one can ask the court to issue an executive warrant to get the monies due.

The current case load at the Arbitration Tribunal is about 40 cases a year so it can handle cases more easily than a court that has a backlog of over 2,000 cases, which is the situation of the SCT right now.

"We are also recognising the dignity of bills of exchange. At law, a bill of exchange has the strength of money but statistics indicate that the courts are taking far too long to decide cases involving bills of exchange. This delay can be attributed to a very rigid formalistic situation and to long court procedures.

"The Bill is suggesting that whoever has a bill of exchange in his favour can file a judicial letter in court asking the defaulting party to pay. If the debtor does not pay within two days, the letter becomes an executive title.

"This will assist the economy by generating cash flow," Dr Mifsud Bonnici remarked.

The Bill is expected to be approved by parliament before it rises for the summer recess.

Pending cases:

First Hall of the Civil Court: Malta: 6,492; Gozo: 1,325;

Magistrates' Court, Civil Hall: Malta: 1,470; Gozo: 251;

Small Claims Tribunal: Malta: 2,155; Gozo: 70.