A mobile, tablet or laptop can be used to keep tabs on civil cases filed in the lower courts: you will be able to track them online.
Emanuel Sciriha, director at the Civil Courts and Tribunals Directorate, told a press conference yesterday that the system, called ‘My Acts’, only allowed a person to follow cases filed in their own name but not judicial acts against them.
This was a preventive measure so people would not avoid the notification process.
Acts that can be traced include judicial applications leading to a libel case and judicial letters filed when a seller fails to enter into a contract despite a promise of sale.
Justice Minister Owen Bonnici noted that the new service was only one in a series of initiatives aimed at improving the administration of justice and making the process more efficient.
He listed a number of IT services introduced since March of 2013. These include one launched in October 2013 through which lawyers are notified by SMS when cases are put off. In January last year, the service was extended to citizens involved in civil cases. About 16,000 text messages have been sent so far.
Last October, a new service called ‘Lecam Online’ was unveiled, allowing lawyers, public notaries and legal procurators to access information on decided or pending cases online instead of having to go to the court’s registry in person.
A total of 20,046 documents related to pending cases have been scanned so far and are available online.
My Acts is accessible with an e-ID on http://justice.gov.mt/onlineservices .
Earlier this month, it was reported that only a quarter of adults made use of e-government services, with 56 per cent saying that they trusted more traditional, face-to-face services.
The same research, undertaken by the government agency, shows that while 63 per cent of Maltese have the possibility of using their e-ID, only 39 per cent do so to access online services.
Mita’s executive chairman Tony Sultana said yesterday that the e-ID service would be simplified by the first quarter of next year.