The EU Justice Scoreboard is a useful information tool that looks at the national justice systems of all EU countries and at their independence, efficiency and quality. This scoreboard has been published annually since 2013 and mainly focuses on cases of a civil, commercial and administrative nature.
This system has proven to be an excellent way to measure Malta’s results in the justice sector and is also an important yardstick which looks at our challenges so that these can be tackled in the best way possible. It serves as an ideal performance indicator to keep on improving our justice system.
The scoreboard is published by the European Commission and this year’s edition looks at results obtained in 2016 from across all EU countries. Malta has recorded the best clearance rate for civil, commercial and administrative cases.
In fact, Malta has always ranked among the best seven countries in this regard – a clear sign of improvement when it comes to the efficiency of the law courts in our country.
Malta has recorded improvements in each area especially when one considers that the number of civil, administrative and commercial cases opened during the last four years was unchanging. As clearly outlined in the Justice Scoreboard results, a significant improvement has been seen since 2013 and this promising rate has left a positive impact on the lengthy procedures registered in Maltese courts.
This positive decline in numbers has been present for four years – testimony that this government is clearly determined to keep on working towards the reduction of lengthy procedures by introducing reforms that will improve the courts’ efficiency.
When it comes to services provided in our courts, the Scoreboard shows that our country has improved in regard to the progress of cases, thanks to newly introduced services. Malta has also placed among the first 15 countries that use IT services when it comes to managing cases.
This government is clearly determined to keep on working towards the reduction of lengthy procedures by introducing reforms that will improve the courts’ efficiency
The quality provided by the justice system in specialised sectors has also seen improvements in our country. These improvements include an increase in measures pertaining to activity evaluation in court and in services in relation to providing information on the progress of cases.
The Scoreboard outlined that Malta has increased the possibility of opening a case in court in an electronic manner. Our country has also introduced a strong electronic framework for the Small Claims Tribunal. The Justice Department within the ministry has also started conducting User Satisfaction Surveys with professionals who use their services.
The Scoreboard measures efficiency in the civil court by looking at the length of proceedings, the clearance rate and the number of pending cases. While the disposition time on civil commercial and administrative cases remained the same from 2015 to 2016, the disposition time in civil and commercial cases has improved by 15 days, placing Malta ahead of countries like Italy and Greece. As mentioned earlier, Malta’s clearance rate has placed us at the forefront by classifying us in first place in this regard, while in 2017 Malta was in the fourth place.
When it comes to the number of pending cases in the civil, commercial and administrative sector in the court of first instance, Malta has advanced to the seventh position and is also one of the countries that recurrently lowered the number of pending cases on a yearly basis in the civil and commercial sector.
The Justice Scoreboard also addresses the independence of the judiciary as a progress indicator. Our country has shown that its judicial system has structural measures in place to ensure that independence in the judiciary is maintained.
While the results obtained show a significant improvement in the efficiency and service of our justice system, one must keep in mind that in this delicate sector challenges are always present. We must approach these challenges in a proactive manner in order to keep on improving on the services being offered.
These results are giving us the energy to carry on addressing this sector; to constantly work to ensure a better and more efficient service from our justice system.
Owen Bonnici is the Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government.