A culture change is needed to counter the Maltese “argumentative mentality” and embrace legal mediation, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said yesterday.

Addressing a public consultation on the Budget, the minister said that, per capita, Malta had triple the number of court cases filed in countries triple its size.

“As a people, we tend to fight and argue more than others.

“We don’t have a culture of mediation and so many arguments end up in court when they could be resolved elsewhere,” he said while fielding a series of questions on court delays from irate members of the public.

Dr Bonnici said the island needed a larger judiciary but lacked the necessary space.

More legal assistants were also needed to facilitate the large amount of work that the judiciary faced on a day-to-day basis. Replying to a question by someone who claimed to have waited several years for a court decision, Dr Bonnici said he was working towards a system whereby judges and magistrates could hand down a judgment even if one of the parties was not present.

The proposal, he said, would be passed through Parliament as soon as the Opposition got onboard with the idea.

Dr Bonnici also announced a reform that will see legal aid lawyers appointed by a new agency and not by the Attorney General.

This, he said, will solve the difficulty faced by those lawyers appointed by the AG, whose office then prosecuted against them.

On Valletta’s stint as the European capital of culture, Dr Bonnici said the city’s international profile rivalled that of the whole island.

Asked by a concerned parent whether the drug reform would encourage youths to experiment with drugs, Dr Bonnici said that while the review would bring the laws in line with the reality of modern day drug use, it would also have a strong focus on education and public outreach.