Members of the public will now be notified by SMS whenever their civil cases are put off, eliminating a major source of frustration.

The system, previously available only to lawyers, was launched by Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici last October.

As of yesterday, the parties involved in civil cases may now opt to be notified, with assistance from the Court Registry, by a text message.

The initiative is bound to be welcomed by many who often spend hours in court only to be told their case has been deferred.

Dr Bonnici said the notification system formed part of a reform that aimed at making full use of information technology.

So far, the authorities have successfully introduced a system where decrees and evidence are sent to practitioners through e-mail.

Meanwhile, in the next few months, it would become possible for judicial acts to be presented in Malta or Gozo, independently of where the cases were held, Dr Bonnici said.

Also, legal practitioners will soon be able to access information related to cases and judicial acts, which at the moment are available on the courts’ internal system.

All the documents in the civil registry will be scanned and become accessible to practitioners on the internet.

When launching the initiative last year, Dr Bonnici said the idea of the reform was to move towards a fully virtual system in which cases could be filed from the comfort of lawyers’ offices, with the Court Registry working similarly to the Malta Financial Services Authority, where everything was filed online.