Reference is made to the article under the heading Case put off because AG did not send back the file (TMID, 26 October) where it is reported that Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera had to defer a case because the Attorney General had not supplied the court with the file of documents of the case.

It should be pointed out that according to law the Attorney General is allowed a period of one month from the date of receipt of the record of the case in order to return the record to the court. In the case referred to in the article in question, the record was referred back to the court within the period allowed by law and therefore in time.

What happened was that the court appointed the date for the hearing of the case without taking due account of the period allowed by law for the reference back of the record by the Attorney General. In fact the record was with the court at about 1.30pm on the same date of the hearing but the case had already been put off.

Better case management would have avoided the situation which arose.

Silvio Camilleri

Attorney General

Valletta