A court case still undecided after more than 35 years reflects the outdated state of the judicial system, according to Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici.
“It feels as if someone put the progress of the law courts on pause 15 years ago. While the rest of the world was developing and progressing, the situation in Malta lay uncomfortably numb,” he said.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in Parliament on Tuesday that the longest pending court case had been filed on December 18, 1979.
Replying to a parliamentary question tabled by Labour whip Carmelo Abela, Dr Muscat said other overdue cases dated back to the 1970s and 1980s.
He pointed out that many of these cases had started being heard by one magistrate but then shifted to others along the years.
Some were being heard by magistrates who had not even been appointed when the cases started.
Dr Bonnici told Times of Malta the present state of affairs in the justice system could not be tolerated because it adversely affected citizens’ fundamental right to have their case decided in a reasonable time.
The Prime Minister gave the information on the longest-standing court case just a day after the publication of the EU’s justice scoreboard, which ranked Malta 27th out of 28 member states in terms of legal efficiency.
While the rest of the world was developing and progressing, the situation in Malta lay uncomfortably numb
The island had the second lengthiest court procedures between 2010 and 2012, with cases taking an average of 707 working days to be concluded. This did not include the duration of appeals, which, it said, normally took several more years to be decided.
Denmark had the most efficient system with first judgments being handed down 17 days from filing.
Dr Bonnici said the government had a three-year plan, which it had already started to implement, to address the situation.
“We have already passed a Bill to address crucial issues, such as the rights of arrested persons and other measures to speed up the compilation of evidence,” he said, adding that a third Bill on constitutional reform was in the concluding stages.
“It will be a very busy period for the justice sector,” he said.