The Court Services Agency has embarked on a recruiting process to increase administrative employees in order to ensure that all members of the Judiciary are assigned more staff, a spokesperson for the Justice Ministry told The Malta independent on Sunday.

The spokesperson was responding to questions sent by this newsroom, after an article penned by Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale had highlighted the lack of resources within the courts. Depasquale is the president of the Association of Judges and Magistrates of Malta.

In his article, which appeared in the Times of Malta on 23 August, Depasquale said that while criticism of the judicial system in Malta “is rife, little reference is ever made to the root causes of this criticism and the major problems faced by the judicial system: namely the acute lack of adequate space, trained and dedicated personnel and resources in the law courts.” He said that the situation of court personnel in the Maltese courts, both judicial and unjudicial, “is critical and the whole court administration, which is the sole prerogative of the government, is in a very precarious and dire situation.”

Mr Justice Depasquale had said that “every member of the judiciary needs a deputy registrar to manage cases and sittings, a court attorney and/or judicial assistant to assist the judiciary in the hearing of the cases and in drafting court judgments, a court marshall to call the cases and ensure security in the court hall, a court messenger to assist with the handling of the files and acts to be seen to, one or more court assistants to type out all the transcripts of the evidence, a court clerk to process the various acts which are presented in the court registry for the particular member of the judiciary, and a driver.” He added, however, that “unfortunately, to date, due to the financially restrictive working conditions, pressure of work and long working hours, none of the members of the judiciary are provided with the full complement needed..” He went on to detail what kind of staff shortages there were.

The Malta Independent sent questions to the Justice Ministry asking about the staff shortages.

“Currently, the Court Services Agency (CSA) is working on a revised HR plan to address the imminent staff requirements and for a better pay package to retain and attract staff with the CSA. Final discussions with trade unions are also being held for the finalisation of the CSA’s first collective agreement. These measures are all aimed to continue to increase the courts’ efficiency. The agreement will provide a better package for court staff with the objective of staff retention and internal progression within the agency,” a spokesperson for the Justice Ministry said.

The spokesperson added that the Court Services Agency embarked on a recruiting process to increase administrative staff in order to ensure that all members of the Judiciary are assigned more staff. “This will be concluded in the coming weeks.”

“In respect of Court Attorneys and Judicial Assistants, the procedure is that Judges are assigned a court attorney who is selected by the respective member of the judiciary himself/herself and judicial assistants are chosen through a selection process. Two of the newly appointed magistrates were immediately assigned a judicial assistant and with regards to the other two, a call for applications was issued and the selection process has been finalised. The selection shall happen in the coming days.”

“The Government’s ultimate aim is to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system after decades of inaction from PN Justice Ministers. The Ministry for Justice remains committed to further increase court efficiency and to ensure that all members of the judiciary have the tools and resources required to truly see that justice is being served, and accessible to all citizens,” the spokesperson added.

The ministry was also asked to provide statistics regarding the pending number of civil, criminal, constitutional and appeal cases, to which it did.

As at end August 2021, there were 3,583 cases pending before the First Hall of the Civil Court, 679 of which have been pending for more than five years.  There are 292 appeals pending before the Court of Civil Appeal in its Inferior Jurisdiction, one of which has been pending for more than five years. In addition, there are 1,262 appeals pending before the Court of Civil Appeal in its Superior Jurisdiction, of which 87 have been pending for more than five years.

The First Hall in its Constitutional Jurisdiction has 1,017 pending cases, of which 31 have been pending for more than five years. The Constitutional Court has 44 cases pending, none of which have been pending for over five years.

In terms of the Criminal Court, there are 96 cases pending, 34 of which have been pending for more than five years. There are 649 appeals pending before the Court of Criminal Appeal in its Inferior Jurisdiction, and 21 appeals before the Court of Criminal Appeal in its Superior Jurisdiction, of which of which 89 cases and one case respectively have been pending for more than five years.

“Compared to 2012, there were five categories out of the eight requested where there was a decrease in the number of pending cases,” the spokesperson said.

In total within the aforementioned eight court categories, there were 6,964 pending cases as at end August 2021, a decrease of 441 when compared to the 7,405 cases that were pending at the end of 2012.

When comparing the numbers to the end of 2012, the most considerable fluctuation can be seen in the decrease in the number of First Hall of the Civil Court cases, which numbered 4,888 cases pending at the end of 2012, thus having deceased by 1,305. The second highest fluctuation regards the First Hall in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, where at the end of 2012 there were just 31 cases pending, thus having increased by 986 cases pending.