Children of broken marriages are not only the victims of what happens between their parents, but certain court decisions on custody are making innocent children nomads, with their time split between mother and father. There should be a place they could call home, Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said yesterday during the parliamentary debate on amendments to various laws.

The post of children's lawyer should be made a permanent position, and only specially-trained lawyers could do the job. Knowledge of the law should not be enough, she continued.

Appoġġ needed to be given all necessary human resources to get children out of the clutches of perpetrators of crimes against them. It was inconceivable that there should be a waiting list of such children.

Earlier in her speech Ms Coleiro Preca said several suggestions had been made for a better judiciary, but in spite of the urgency for change the suggestions had fallen on deaf ears. The judiciary was essential for safeguarding the most fundamental human rights, so a timeframe should be set up for the necessary changes to be implemented.

On the other side of the coin, the changes should be well crafted in order to avoid people taking advantage of those very same changes, such as sequestration.

One particular sector that needed urgent attention was the Family Court. It was already positive that the court had been physically removed from other courts to a more friendly environment. But any change to legislation should be monitored to spot any needs for further improvement.

Ms Coleiro Preca said she had always believed that imposed mediation between couples could be counter-productive, but the system had produced results and taken on the workload that would otherwise have gone straight to the presiding judge.

In order to avoid unnecessary hardships and heartache, such couples must find the support of specialised personnel such as counsellors and psychiatrists, which couples would not normally seek. The Family Court should therefore have a specialised workforce in this sense.

There should be serious evaluation of some separation contracts that were being drafted. Women were usually more dependent than men on alimony, but some were finishing up without any alimony because they would have come to an agreement on the matrimonial home, following which they would sometimes find difficulties in procuring social benefits.

Marriage separation contracts should be well scrutinised, and not necessarily by the presiding judge, Ms Coleiro Preca said. The courts could be helped in this by professionals. Women and especially the children were highly vulnerable in marriage separations.

The state should be able to intervene in cases of exorbitant rents charged to separated women. This was where displaced vulnerable families could do with social housing. Taking steps not to let such cases be perpetrated would be an investment in the future of Maltese families and society.

It was true that legal experts were charging exorbitant fees. This aspect, too, should be tackled.

Young children who fell into drug abuse and were rehabilitated should be helped against falling back into the same rut, sometimes even finding themselves in prison after they had set up families.

The legal aid office must be efficient if people with no means were to be given real access to justice. Not only was a major reform of this sector needed, the party needing legal aid should be given the opportunity to choose its lawyer, who would be paid out of the funds allocated for legal aid.

Exorbitant court fees were making justice inaccessible to all needy individuals, and even those not so needy.

Concluding on the nominations system to the Court of Human Rights, Ms Coleiro Preca said she was occasionally embarrassed by the fact that Malta seemed to have not even started on the road of gender equality. It was useless for the state to plead lack of experience on the part of women judges; this in itself was an admission of failure.

Judge Giovanni Bonello had shown one and all that even a member of the judiciary without the experience of a judge could make his country proud on the bench. She appealed to the government to stop making Malta an international laughing stock. Successful Maltese women, even overseas, were living proof that having a family was not a real drawback if there was the will. Earlier, Labour MP José Herrera said that he agreed that a judge could assign court cases, but this discretionary power should not be carried to the extreme. He showed his disagreement in the assignment of libel and constitutional cases to particular magistrates or judges because these were often sensitive cases. Assignment of these court cases should be spread over all members of the judiciary.

It was wrong, he said, not to let Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco hear constitutional cases.

As regards the separation of powers, the courts had to retain authority to make judicial reviews. This authority should be extended and not reduced, added Dr Herrera. A judge could not be assigned administrative work.

The minister should assume political responsibility wherever there were cases of negligence or abuse in the choice of members of the judiciary, as this was a political appointment. He had heard that it was being proposed or debated at Chamber of Advocates level that disciplinary action against the judiciary might include sacking. He did not agree that the executive should have the right to sack members of the judiciary, but the judiciary had to be held as accountable as politicians. One had to see how to address this problem.

Nationalist MP Franco Debono said that the amendments would speed up the judicial process in favour of creditors. Precautionary warrants could be transformed into warrants of seizure.

This showed the government's commitment to seeing that justice was done in commercial and civil cases.

Dr Debono called on the authorities to strengthen the forensic laboratory so that the Police Corps would have better tools to work with.

He agreed with Dr Herrera on the independence of the courts.

He was concerned about the number of cases where magistrates heard evidence with no lawyer present, saying this was dangerous practice.

Dr Debono said he had discussed the fees of court-appointed architects with the minister and he was sure that Dr Mifsud Bonnici was considering what steps to take on the issue.

Plea bargaining should be extended to the Magistrates' Courts.

It was not fair that someone dictate or interfere in a subtle way how other members of the judiciary delivered sentences. Presidential pardons were the prerogative of the executive, and no member of the judiciary should ever intervene in such matters.

Dr Debono proposed that the threshold for a lawyer to become a magistrate should be increased from seven to 10 years' service. Edwin Vassallo (PN) said that the amendments were intended to eliminate bureaucracy and increase efficiency and effectiveness. These amendments would also strengthen the economy because executive warrants were now more effective.

A new culture had to be instilled where the Maltese would not live beyond their means. Businessmen were now in a better position to claim moneys owed to them.

The amendments had been made with a social conscience because personal items were not subject to seizure. It was important that when warrants of seizure were effected, one had to act responsibly so as not to create hardship.

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