Justice Minister Owen Bonnici insisted once more today that court attorneys are lawyers like any other and therefore eligible to be appointed magistrates.
Speaking in parliament with an eye on the controversial appointment of court attorney Caroline Farrugia Frendo, Dr Bonnici welcomed comments by the dean of the Faculty of Law, Kevin Aquilina in today's Times of Malta that court attorneys are lawyers.
Dr Bonnici said the Attorney General had also advised him that court attorneys, as lawyers, exercised the legal profession.
Former President Eddie Fenech Adami too had commented on similar circumstances in the recently-published book by Prof. David Attard on the Maltese legal system.
Dr Fenech Adami had recalled his disappointment that the Commission for the Administration of Justice had objected to the nomination of Dr Andre' Camilleri as judge, despite his undoubted integrity. The commission had argued that he did not have much court experience, having worked in the Malta Financial Services Authority and elsewhere.
This, Dr Fenech Adami had said, was nonsensical.
"Many fine lawyers these days do not go anywhere near a courtroom," he was quoted as saying.
Dr Bonnici said he fully agreed with Dr Fenech Adami's comments.
As Prof. Aquilina had said, ever since 1961, the Constitution no longer required lawyers to practice at the bar to be nominated to the judiciary.
And in 2007, the PN government itself amended the Code of Organisation and Civil Procure to delete the requirement for lawyers to practice at the court of justice.
The law now said that "no person may exercise the profession of advocate without the authority of the President of Malta by warrant..."
Court attorneys worked closely with judges in the drafting of judgements and therefore had the best possible understanding of what that work involved. It was obvious that they could not work in private practice because that would have been a clear conflict of interest.
But court attorneys were experienced lawyers, chosen by the judges themselves. To say they were not lawyers was far from the case.
The situation was similar to lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General, who also could not work in private practice, as well as judicial assistants. The former government had appointed magistrates from both categories and they were doing fine work in the judiciary.
Dr Bonnici said there clearly was the need for more magistrates and more court attorneys for the court workload to be eased. There was also the need to improve the work conditions and pensions of the members of the judiciary as well as a reform of the way the Commission for the Administration of Justice functioned so as to provide for greater accountability. The government was committed to bring about such change.
In his speech Dr Bonnici also referred to yesterday's headline in The Sunday Times which read "Bonnici: I am right and experts are wrong." He denied ever having said those words and said that what he had said could be verified in a video recording of the whole interview.
In the interview Dr Bonnci said: "although I respect these gentlemen, I disagree with them... They are not correct."