Court services, including most court sittings, ground to a halt last Friday when most magistrates were busy trying to solve clues in a treasure hunt organised for them by the Judicial Studies Committee.

Legal practitioners told The Sunday Times of Malta they turned up at court that morning only to discover that their clients would have to return another day as members of the judiciary were on a team-building exercise.

“When we asked the court authorities what was going on, we were informed that the magistrates would not be turning up for work on the day as they had some kind of seminar,” a veteran lawyer told this newspaper.

“We were even more surprised when later we were informed that most of the magistrates were seen speeding off in their cars to the north of the island taking part in a treasure hunt. At first we thought it was a joke but it seems that it wasn’t,” another lawyer said.

The Sunday Times of Malta is informed that the treasure hunt was part of a team-building exercise devised for the magistrates in order to allow them to get to know each other better.

Apart from the magistrates, some judges also took part in the ‘extracurricular’ activity.

A magistrate, who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the treasure hunt had taken place last Friday but could not understand why lawyers were making “so much fuss” about it.

“Members of the judiciary are also normal human beings and work under constant pressure. They also need to let off some steam,” he said.

However, the fact the activity took place during normal court hours did come in for some criticism.

“We already have a part-time court where court sittings only take place in the mornings as the majority of members of the judiciary do not hold sittings in the afternoon,” one court source commented.

The Judicial Studies Committee is a body responsible for ongoing training of the members of the judiciary. It assists judges and magistrates in skills training and continued professional development mainly through seminars conducted by both local and foreign experts and speakers.

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