Forty-three lawyers this morning filed a judicial protest claiming that higher registration fees being imposed at the law courts were illegal since they were not covered by law.

The lawyers filed the protest in the First Hall of the Civil Courts against the Law Courts' director general, the Civil Courts' registrar, the Criminal Courts' registrar, the Justice Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for Justice.

The lawyers noted that higher registration fees started being imposed as from January 1. These revised fees were paid whenever court documents were registered in court.

The lawyers argued that these new fees were not mentioned in the law governing fees and tariffs. These were illegal since the House of Representatives never passed a law introducing these new tariffs.

This unprecedented move was also exposing them to legal complications with their clients since they were asking them to pay fees not covered by law, they said.

The lawyers called on the courts to stop imposing these illegal tariffs, refund the money charged illegally and held the courts liable in damages.

Lawyer Edward Debono signed the protest.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.