The government is carrying out an internal exercise to tackle problems connected with the appointment of court experts, the Times of Malta is informed.
Describing it as the first concrete step in “an overhaul of the court experts system”, the Justice Department has asked all those responsible for such tasks to fill in a detailed due diligence dossier that will be submitted for verification by other authorities.
The Justice Ministry has been facing criticism from various quarters, including from the Chamber of Advocates, that it has been dragging its feet on the reforms suggested by the Bonello Commission in 2014.
The Justice Department is asking all court experts to submit personal details and list their expertise, declare any possible conflicts of interest and say whether they had ever been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
Under the system in place, court experts, appointed at the sole discretion of magistrates and judges, are not screened.
They will now have to submit copies of their police records and certificates of expertise, to be verified by the government.
The experts are being warned that, if they fail to send their due diligence forms, they may be struck off the list from which the judiciary makes their choice.
The dossier also seeks information on any memberships of organisations and on any directorships or partnerships.
They will now have to submit copies of their police records and certificates of expertise
They also have to declare whether they are the subject ofany criminal court procedures and/or have been subjected to any disciplinary measures by a regulatory authority.
Calls for a reform of the system became stronger after a ruling in May by three judges cast a shadow on court expert Martin Bajada’s integrity.
Some years back, Dr Bajada was convicted in a criminal case.
The Court of Appeal upheld an application by private citizens contesting a report submitted by Dr Bajada after learning about his criminal record, involving falsification of documents and theft.
The court, presided over by the Chief Justice, declared it was not only in the interest of those making the claim but in the general interest of the administration of justice that Dr Bajada’s report be removed from the records of the case and not given any weight.
According to Justice Minster Owen Bonnici, Dr Bajada received over €500,000 in court expert fees in the last six years.
The Chamber of Advocates has publicly called for a radical reform in the system, calling the prevailing situation a “racket” where what mattered most was how friendly certain ‘experts’ were with magistrates and police inspectors.
The Justice Reform Commission, headed by former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello, suggested a number of measures, including how experts should be selected, the fees they are paid, the qualifications and training needed and the establishment of databases of experts from which members of the judiciary would make their choices. The Justice Ministry has, so far, refrained from providing this newspaper with a list of court experts appointed over the past five years, the members of the judiciary who appointed them and the payments made.
A request by the Times of Malta under the Freedom of Information Act is still being evaluated by the court administration.