The length of time court cases take to conclude in Malta has been a hot topic for many years.

The government has tried to reduce the time it takes cases to conclude court cases, as leaving them continue for years on end has never been a viable option and needs to be tackled. At the same time, justice must be allowed to take its course.

One such method used by the government has been the appointment of more members of the judiciary.

The Chamber of Advocates President, Dr Louis de Gabriele, was interviewed by The Malta Independent on Sunday, and gave a number of examples of how such an issue could be solved. He admits that the situation has improved over the years, but says that more needs to be done.

Firstly, the most obvious way would be to continue appointing more members of the Judiciary. This, however, might need to wait until a court case regarding recent appointments to such posts concludes.

But this is not the only solution. Administrative issues and changes in case management could be the way forward.

First of all, the Chamber President mentioned the idea of appeal cases being handled without oral hearings, instead being dealt with through written submissions. This could help reduce the time it takes for such cases to be handled. Indeed the Chamber President said that such cases currently take over 4 years to be decided, which is completely unacceptable.

Other ways through which the time court cases take to be solved can be reduced would be to tackle time-wasting issues. On this point, he recommends that case management sittings no longer be held by the judge or magistrate, but instead by court administrative staff. Such cases would, for instance involve the parties just holding a sitting to tell a judge that they failed to come to an agreement.

Another issue that was prevalent in court over the years was the time people were made to wait for their case to be called. De Gabriele also made a recommendation in this regard, that the judiciary no longer appoint several cases to a single time-slot as they did in the past, resulting in, for example, tens of cases scheduled for 9am. Such a practice wasted the public’s time. Instead, he recommends that specific time slots be given for individual cases, as he said is being done during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Chamber President made an important point. There is no single solution to the problem, but many small solutions that, together, could help reduce court delays. He is absolutely right in this matter.

Perhaps another idea could be introducing more tribunals or specialised courts to deal with cases which form deal with specific sections of the law?

The government should sit down with the judiciary, the Chamber of Advocates and the Opposition and try and figure out the best solutions that could help solve this particular problem, draft a plan of action, and get moving.

Court delays can cause mental strain on victims, can cause financial issues for parties involved, can cause contractual problems as well.