Mr Justice Toni Abela taking his oath of office on Monday. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

An “unprecedented” legal problem looms in the law courts as Mr Justice Toni Abela, sworn-in earlier this week, still faces civil libel cases instituted against him when he was editor of Labour’s newspaper KullĦadd, the Times of Malta has been told.

Four libel suits are still pending and some fines imposed on him in similar cases have still to be settled, with senior lawyers describing the situation as “unprecedented”.

“The situation could be embarrassing, especially for the justice system, because it is not normal to have a sitting judge being condemned by a court for libel should he be found guilty. It doesn’t look good,” one experienced lawyer said.

Another pointed out that the situation also put the magistrate hearing the libel cases in a difficult position having to pass judgment on a judge.

“The same applies to the unpaid fines. Would it be healthy for the justice system to have somebody applying for a seizure warrant against a judge,” he added.

Yet, the same lawyers commented that pending civil cases against a lawyer should not disqualify him/her from becoming a member of the judiciary.

It is not normal to have a sitting judge being condemned by a court for libel should he be found guilty

“What if a new judge happened to be going through a normal civil case against him due to a simple traffic collision he had while driving? Should that disqualify him from being a member of the judiciary,” a veteran lawyer asked.

Although it probably never happened in the case of members of the judiciary, legal operators noted that similar situations were encountered in the case of constitutional appointments. In such cases, the new holders of office either dropped the cases they had instituted or reached out-of-court settlements with those proceeding against them, the operators said.

This newspaper is informed that Dr Abela had, for a number of weeks prior to his appointment, been trying to reach out-of-court settlements but was not successful in all cases.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com