The parliamentary secretariat in the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry said changes in court procedures had led to savings by the public and quicker resolution of cases.

It has been three years since the government introduced the judicial letter of the executive bill of exchange through legal notice 384 of 2004. During this time 1,436 judicial letters had been presented.

And it has been two years since the introduction of the executive judicial letter following the 2005 Legal Notice 276 initially for debts below Lm5,000 and now extended to Lm10,000. A total of 6,662 executive judicial letters have been presented.

The secretariat said this meant that:

• This simple legal instrument has been used by almost 8,100 people or entities.

• The public has saved millions of liri in legal costs because people no longer need to present cases to reclaim their money. Under these measures people can pay Lm10 for the right to register and Lm3 for every notice issued.

• The number of cases presented in the magistrates’ court and the small claims tribunal has gone down. The procedure of the executive judicial letter affected 7,000 cases.

The secretariat saw this as a satisfying result which proved that the executive judicial letter was beneficial for people in saving costs and giving a faster method of obtaining judgement.