There is no quick fix solution to reduce the length of time court cases take, as multiple factors contribute to this phenomenon, the Chamber of Advocates told The Malta Independent.
“For this reason, it proposed in its inaugural speech during the opening of the Forensic Year in October 2023, a vision for ‘Justice 2030’, which in essence is the study of the current court procedures to be re-engineered to tailor for the needs of Justice in 2030,” the Chamber said, in response to questions regarding the speed with which cases are decided and how it could be improved,
Publicly available statistics regarding court cases show that a large number of court cases are decided in a month, but then in certain sections, a massive amount of cases are introduced. For example, in January, 801 criminal cases before the Magistrate’s court were decided, and these include cases dealing with health and safety, domestic violence, money laundering, appeals from Commissioners for Justice, hate speech, compilations of evidence, traffic issues and more. But, in that very same month, 1,751 cases were introduced.
The government has appointed a number of new members of the judiciary over the past few years. But court space has also been an issue.
The Chamber believes that “the literal construction of new court halls is a positive step which will contribute to addressing part of the problem contributing to delays, i.e. the lack of space. However, on its own, this is no proper solution. Needless to say, with the increase of eight members to the complement of the Judiciary over the last few months, the available space has been put under even more pressure.”
Asked about digital infrastructure at the court, and whether the it believes any changes are needed, or if any procedural changes are needed to help the judiciary tackle cases more quickly, the Chamber believes that “improving the digital infrastructure is an immediate necessity which cannot be delayed any further, although it firmly believes that the work being done on this front has to follow due process and due consultation, since the outcome must reflect the required re-engineering of archaic procedures themselves and should also form part of the same vision for ‘Justice 2030’.”
The Chamber was also asked about the changes that were introduced to the Court of Appeal procedure in 2021, which were an attempt to speed up the process. “With reference to the changes introduced in August 2021 in the methodology of how cases are heard in front of the Court of Appeal, the Chamber does not have statistics available. However, in ictu oculi cases are being decided in a much shorter timeframe,” the Chamber said.
Lastly, the Chamber was also asked about Covid-19 and the kind of impact it had on the backlog of cases. During the pandemic, there were instances where magistrates and judges had been instructed to defer any non-urgent court cases for a time when Covid cases were soaring. The Courts had even effectively closed at a point due to the spread of the virus.
The Chamber said that, with regards to Covid, “clearly this had and is still having a major impact on the timeframe within which cases are being decided due to the backlog it created due to postponed sittings.”
