Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri is insisting that “old practices need to change” if the law courts are to deliver a better service and cut delays.
Lawyers need to work on their cases in the afternoon and see their clients in the evenings
Welcoming the deal struck between the government and the judiciary on a number of reforms at the law courts, Dr Camilleri described the changes as “an important step in the right direction”.
However, he insisted that all those involved in the system, including the judiciary, lawyers and clients, had to make a massive and genuine effort to change their old systems to ensure the agreed reforms worked.
The deal struck between the Executive and the judiciary was revealed by The Sunday Times. It will see judges and magistrates increase their financial package by €12,000 over the next three years in exchange for a series of overdue reforms, including the introduction of an appointment system for hearing court cases, holding sittings in the afternoon and increasing the retirement age to 68 years.
The Chamber of Advocates also welcomed the deal, calling it “very positive”, but its president, Reuben Balzan, insisted that holding afternoon sittings was a no-go area for his members.
“We think that, overall, Justice Minister Chris Said did a good job but we are totally against the idea of afternoon court sittings. We have already made it clear this is unacceptable for us,” he said.
Asked to explain, Dr Balzan said holding afternoon sessions was not practical, especially for those lawyers whose office was not in Valletta.
“It is impossible in our system to have lawyers attending sittings in the morning, with all the waste of time this already entails, and now having to also attend afternoon sittings. Lawyers need to work on their cases in the afternoon and see their clients in the evenings,” he said.
According to Dr Balzan, it would be better if sittings were held every morning of the week and change the practice of having a court working only for three mornings out of five.
“Practically, no sittings are held on Mondays and Fridays and all cases are crammed in the other three days of the week. We can, at least, try to have sittings from Monday to Friday and then we won’t need to use the afternoons,” he argued.
According to current practice, judges and magistrates use the days when no sittings are held to work in camera or at home on their cases, including writing judgments.
Reacting to the lawyers’ objections, the Chief Justice said changing old practices was always resisted and difficult but reforms could not be made to accommodate one sector or another.
“We must try to reach a satisfactory solution but we need a sincere effort from all sides,” he insisted.
“If we make an effort and get going, we may realise problems are not as insurmountable as we perceive,” he said.
Dr Said, who spearheaded the negotiations with the judiciary over the last months, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A spokesman for the Association of the Judiciary said they had no comment to make.