Overloaded judiciary deserve help not criticism, Chief Justice

Judges and magistrates who cannot cope with the workload, despite their best efforts, are in need of help and not of fingers pointed at them, as seems to be suggested in the White Paper on the administration of justice, Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano said yesterday.

Speaking during the ceremony marking the opening of the forensic year, he said it is easy to point fingers and criticise the work of judges and magistrates. Dr De Gaetano called on those making such criticism to offer their assistance to the judiciary on a part-time basis.

"After all, let's not forget that Malta has one of the lowest rates, in terms of ratio, between members of the judiciary and population."

Statistics show that in Germany there is one judging body for every 4,000 citizens; in Austria there is one for every 4,800; in Italy there is one for every 9,000; in Spain one for every 10,100 and in Malta there is one for every 12,200 and this when in Cyprus, which is a relatively small country like Malta, there are 96 judging bodies or one per 7,500 people.

Therefore, to match the ratio of Cyprus, Malta - which has 33 judges and magistrates - would need 52 or 53 members of the judiciary.

His audience included President Eddie Fenech Adami, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Justice Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, judges, magistrates, lawyers and legal procurators.

Dr De Gaetano noted the efforts and dedication which "nearly all" members of the judiciary put into their work despite the workload.

He praised the work carried out by the judge presiding over the Criminal Court - Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono - who did all he could to avoid wasting funds and resources through unnecessary delays.

The Chief Justice spoke about both the strong points and the shortcomings of the courts such as the difficulty of initiating new efficient methods of procedure in the First Hall before the backlog was dealt with.

He spoke at length about the Magistrates' Courts in their civil jurisdiction, which had done well this year although, he believed, things could get better with a little effort.

The Magistrates' Court in its criminal competence ought to be examined closely. The volume of work in these courts was such that, even if the magistrates worked from Monday to Friday, which some did, they would still not manage to give all the cases the attention needed in terms of case management.

There was a need for better coordination between the courts, the police and the Attorney General's office - which was understaffed - when it came to compilations of evidence.

The Chief Justice admitted he was not satisfied with the way in which the duty magistrate rotated every 24 hours. He was convinced this led to situations when the police could pick and choose magistrates when they wanted to file requests of an immediate nature, such as in the case of warrants.

He also spoke about the "miracles" expected from the two judges presiding over the Family Court and questioned whether the mediation process was reaching the purpose for which it was set up. Perhaps it was time to revise the terms of reference for mediators, he said.

There was the tendency to set up tribunals and institutions to take on some of the court's workload. This ran the risk of setting up a parallel justice system that did not provide the parties in question with the guarantees offered by judges and magistrates.

"I am convinced, however, that instead of focusing exclusively on creating new structures and tribunals - which, after all, cost lots of money - we ought to do what I had suggested two years ago and invest in the structure of the ordinary courts in a categorical and radical way," he said.

The Chief Justice said there was a misconception that the courts did not generate money. Last year the courts generated Lm2,500,000 in revenue. That same year Lm272,662 went into experts' fees. In the first eight months this year, such fees amounted to Lm266,418.

"In my opinion, these figures are unacceptable. I am convinced there are many cases where experts are appointed when they are not really needed while others are appointed when the parameters of their job is not outlined to them so that they are doing more than is required and obviously paid for."

This was happening when the court did not have an allocated budget to pay for the services offered by Agenzija Appogg when its services were required in the Family Court.

The president of the Chamber of Advocates, Robert Mangion, mainly focused on the topic of mediation and the proposed introduction of mediation in civil and commercial matters.

He stressed the importance of the role of the mediator who should be adequately trained. It was also important that criteria were set in order for one to be eligible to serve as mediator. There was the need to provide guidelines and a code of ethics to ensure the impartiality and neutrality of mediators.

Dr Mangion highlighted daily difficulties faced by lawyers, the need to revise certain tariffs and the alarming rate at which experts' court fees had risen, among other things.

After the ceremony President Fenech Adami, the Chief Justice, Dr Mifsud Bonnici and Dr Mangion moved into the conference room where Rosemarie Cachia, the daughter of former Chief Justice George Cassar, unveiled a painting of her father painted by Carmelo Cassar.