The number of deferred cases before a criminal court has been halved, thanks to a six-month pilot project finalised this month, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said this morning.
The project, carried out in Magistrate Francesco Depasquale’s courtroom, saw the number of cases deferred because a party did not attend a sitting reduced from 35 to 15 per cent, Dr Bonnici said.
Launched last September, the project saw a private company take over the responsibility for summoning the witnesses and accused to court, a task previously handled by the police.
Dr Bonnici said Magistrate Depasquale’s courtroom saw 861 cases during the six month project period, of which 666 were finalised through the new system.
The number of people successfully notified under the new system reached some 98 per cent. The only people not summoned had either listed the wrong address, moved without notifying the authorities, or where in the process of demolishing their property, he added.
Dr Bonnici said the system would now be extended to Magistrate Anthony Vella’s court room which deals with family cases of a minor criminal nature. However, he eventually wanted the system to be implemented in all magistrates’ courtrooms.
This, Dr Bonnici said would do away with the long lines of people waiting outside the courthouse every morning.
“We have a situation where hundreds of people are summoned to court at 9am and not heard for hours. We want people to come in when necessary,” he said, adding that witnesses would only be summoned if the accused had already been notified.
Sentencing in absentia
Dr Bonnici this morning also called on the Opposition to come on board with government plans to allow magistrates to sentence people regardless of whether or not they attend the sitting.
Known as the guilty no show system, Dr Bonnici said amendments had already been proposed to the code of laws but he was awaiting the Opposition’s feedback before proceeding to their implementation.
The measure would be applicable to minor criminal offences and not major ones handled by judges.
Dr Bonnici said concerned parties would be summoned twice and then a final time in the Government Gazette before magistrates would be able to move forward to sentencing.
“This is a just system and one that has already been implemented across Europe. The cases may be described as small but to those who are left waiting in court for hours, I can assure you they aren’t,” he said.
Dr Bonnici said he was particularly motivated to push for this new system after having attended a series of morning sittings in the Family Court with Equality Minister Helena Dalli.
Sitting in on a number of cases related to child maintenance, Dr Bonnici said he was taken aback by the number of mothers who had visited the court but their case could not be heard because their children’s father ignored the summons.
“This is simply not acceptable and needs to be stopped,” he said.