One of the government’s pledges in the run up to the 2013 election was to cut down excessive waiting times in court and to improve times for cases to be brought to a conclusion.

While the improvements registered are small, they are improvements none the less, with perhaps the most important ones being that the number of pending cases in both the civil and criminal courts being down, with more cases being concluded every year than there are new ones filed.

It is the only way to start chopping away at the backlog. On Tuesday night, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici gave a lengthy breakdown of what had been implemented over the past two years and what was still to be implemented in time the next couple of years.

Another measure which has expedited the administration of court cases was the appointment of 13 court attorneys, who assist in researching and drawing up judgments which are then handed down in court. The ‘homework’ carried out by these attorneys has allowed judges and magistrates more chamber-time to clear up more hearings.

Another pilot project which was introduced involved lawyers prosecuting cases rather than police inspectors. This move is widely perceived to be positive as it allows inspectors more time to do what they should be doing – investigating crimes. At present, police inspectors prosecute cases, and more often than not, they would have investigated those same crimes themselves. It is a glaring inconsistency which has been flagged by the European Court on more than one occasion. A Justice system cannot be so tied to a law enforcement system. So aside from allowing inspectors more time to do their actual job, introducing a fully fledged measure such as this one will allow a proper delineation between justice and law enforcement, ensuring more transparency.

The government has also set out to further branch out the legal aid system. In the past, it was just a list of lawyers who would be paid by the state to represent people who could not afford their own attorney in a court of law. Who was selected normally depended on who could be reached on the phone, or who could be found in the law courts on the day, provided they were on the list.

There is still, of course, a lot more to do. The actual state of the law courts themselves sometimes leaves a lot to be desired in terms of comfort. It is not only criminals who are taken to court, but people are also there to fight for their rights. We must also look into the fact that people do waste whole days in court waiting to be summoned as witnesses, only to be told that they will not be heard on the day.

While it is good that cases are being whittled down, there also needs to be more momentum and the rate of disposal needs to increase somewhat, if we are to continue to make headway.