The Chief Justice on Monday expressed confidence in every member of the judiciary and said the courts in Malta were not inferior to anywhere else.

Speaking at the opening of the Forensic Year, Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi stressed that judgements needed to be respected by all, and he criticised lawyers who, instead of respecting the finality of court decisions, tried to prolong proceedings by new applications.

He also lamented certain disparaging comments about court sentences made on social media.  

Whilst acknowledging that judgments were open to criticism, he stressed that such criticism needed to be based on a knowledge of the basic principles of justice.

A crucial factor for any judicial system was that of “certainty,” stemming from the finality of court decisions, the Chief Justice observed, making reference to a “small number of lawyers who do all they can to make sure that a legal dispute never reaches an end even after the final pronouncement by the Court of Appeal.”

After losing a case, such lawyers would, sometimes even many years after the final judgment, ask for a retrial and when this was denied, “suddenly claim that there was no fair hearing and thus file a constitutional case.”

“This is not a professional attitude,” Chief Justice Azzopardi remarked, adding that such behaviour merited a suspension of the lawyer’s warrant.

Speaking about delays in court, the Chief Justice lauded the recent appointment of three magistrates and three judges following the retirement of the former Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri and also in view of the imminent retirement of Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi next month.

These new appointees set to work immediately. He said that where possible, advanced planning needed to be made for the replacement of retiring judges. 

Read the address in full on pdf below. 

The outgoing president of the Chamber of Advocates, George Hyzler, regretted that litigation lawyers had become “a threatened species,” in spite of the fact that the number of legal graduates had “exploded” to some 100 each year. 

Many lawyers had evolved into businessmen, Dr Hyzler said, and the time had come for this situation to be addressed, even in the interests of clients who needed to know whether the person they resorted to was a lawyer or a businessman.

Following lengthy discussions with the authorities concerned, there appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel leading to the promulgation of a law to regulate the legal profession, he said.

The proposed bill would provide for a definition of legal services offered by lawyers and other professionals as well as the acknowledgement and regulation of law firms, Dr Hyzler explained.

It would also make obligatory the registration of all lawyers as members of the Chamber of Advocates, the body which would also issue a ‘practising certificate’ to be renewed annually.

The new law would make continued professional development obligatory. Every practising lawyer would also be bound to issue a basic professional indemnity, Dr Hyzler explained. 

“We are not afraid of change,” Dr Hyzler declared.

Turning to the efficiency of the courts, Dr Hyzler said that in spite of everything, “unfortunately we have not yet found the cure to this endemic illness,” pointing out that although the disposal rate of caseload had improved, globally fewer cases were decided when comparing records from 2012 and 2017.