Updated 4.15pm with AG's reply

I agree with Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi when he stated that lawyers who keep dragging cases out, even when they have lost the appeal, are unprofessional and should lose their warrant.

The Chief Justice could add Attorney General Peter Grech here, who in the case of the National Bank of Malta is doing exactly the same.

After litigation that lasted nearly 40 years, due to the unnecessary delaying tactics of the past and present governments, the bank finally won the case and then the appeal.

All that remains now is for two reputable accounting firms or individual arbitrators to be appointed to determine the amount (quantum) the bank was actually worth.

However, following several court sittings, the AG, quite according to form, persistently refuses to accept any of the accounting firms or individuals suggested by the judge and the bank.

Perhaps if the name of Nexia BT was to be put forward, the AG would finally agree.

AG's reply

In a reply, the AG's office said that while it did not see a basis for the publication of such inflammatory and contemptuous language, it wished to point out that in the course of the discussion about possible court experts, the government had proposed many independent international experts.

These included former heads of the Bank of England, the Banque de France and the Banca d’ Italia as well as other international experts on bank resolution to act as court experts in the National Bank case.

These, it said, were always opposed tooth and nail by the former National Bank shareholders in the same way they vehemently opposed and attacked all Maltese banking experts suggested by the government.