Lawyer and Labour MP Jose' Herrera said today that he is no longer defending court cases before his sister, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera.
Dr Herrera was reacting to testimony in court today by columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia. (see http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110906/local/caruana-galizia.383569 )
She said, she had noticed, without making specific research, that most cases involving the legal office of Dr Herrera ended with suspended jail terms and probationary periods, and she only found one case where somebody was jailed. This, she said, was shocking.
In a statement, Dr Herrera said in a judgement delivered by the European Court of Human Rights in the names of Joseph Micallef vs Malta (17056/06) of the 15th January 2008, the Court decided that it was against article 6 of the European Convention for Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, today Minister of Justice, to appear before his uncle former Chief Justice Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici.
The Government of Malta did not agree with this judgement and appealed before the Grand Chamber which confirmed that judgement.
"Shortly after this judgement was delivered I decided to refrain from appearing before my sister and this notwithstanding that legislation precluding lawyers from appearing before family members was not yet in force."
Till then, Dr Herrera said, it was common practice for lawyers to appear before relatives who happened to be members of the judiciary. In truth there were no legal grounds for asking for an abstention.