Over 13,600 cases are pending before the Criminal Court, while almost half the cases deferred for judgment by the Civil Court and Family Court have been in abeyance for more than 18 months.
An excercise has started in order to evaluate what is causing delays
Statistics seen by The Sunday Times reveal serious problems at the Law Courts when it comes to the length of time it takes for court cases to be heard and decided.
The latest statistics, up to November 2011, show over 600 pending cases before the Court of Appeal and just over 100 pending cases before judges presiding over the Criminal Court.
Magistrates in Malta have 12,541 pending cases, while those in Gozo have 1,100 pending cases. The total of 13,641 cases does not include those which have been deferred indefinitely (sine die).
An age analysis report compiled by the court authorities with figures until September shows that 10 per cent of all cases before the civil courts (1,088) have been outstanding for over a decade. Most of these (732) are before the First Hall of the Civil Court.
Newly-appointed Justice Minister Chris Said acknowledges the problems the Law Courts were facing, saying such unjustified delays were causing hardship for theparties concerned and affecting credibility.
He aims to take stock of the situation and start a consultation process with all stakeholders, namely the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the Chamber of Advocates, among others.
When contacted, Dr Said, a lawyer by profession, who only took over the Justice portfolio on January 6, said he had started an exercise to evaluate what was causing such delays, although he admitted that a lot of work had been done in recent years to reduce these delays.
Aware of this problem,the Chamber of Advocates in November launched a service to help people involved in cases which have been on the shelf for more than 18 months file an application with the Chief Justice to replace the presiding judge or magistrate.
According to law, a party to a court case pending judgment for 18 months or more may request that the Chief Justice replaces the presiding member of the judiciary. Those whose case has been pending judgment for more than three years can file a similar application.
Chamber president Reuben Balzan said the chamber received a huge number of requests for assistance from people complaining that their court cases had been dragging on for years.
“However, we have had to reject the vast majority of the cases referred to us since we are limiting our assistance only to those people who have cases that have been pending judgment for more than 18 months.
“In fact only around 10 cases qualified and we are now in the process of filing the applications before the Chief Justice in accordance with the law.”
Launching the service in November, Dr Balzan had said there were 970 cases pending judgment before the Civil and Family Courts. Not all have been pending over 18 months.
He said that as at December, 72 cases were pending before the Family Court but none has been pending judgment for more than 18 months.
On the other hand, 814 cases were pending judgment before the First Hall of the Civil Court, of which 417 have been awaiting judgment for more than 18 months.
Dr Balzan said the situation had now become critical and all stakeholders needed to shoulder responsibility and contribute to make the necessary improvements to the judicial system.
“Improving efficiency in our courts will reap immediate benefits for the economy and will strengthen our democratic process.
“There is no justifiable reason for a court case to take years to be decided,” Dr Balzan said.