Justice Minister Jonathan Attard must shoulder political responsibility by resigning over the "crisis that the justice system finds itself is in," the Nationalist Party has said.
On Thursday, The Maltese Judiciary Association called for more resources to be provided to judges and magistrates, saying that unfortunately competent people are not being drawn to work in the law courts. Meanwhile, the Justice Ministry said that investment in the law courts for the coming year is “unprecedented”.
In a statement signed by Nationalist Party (PN) Spokesperson for Justice Karol Aquilina, the party says that "after nearly two years since the appointment of Attard as Justice Minister, instead of making improvements as is needed, the justice system became worse and is now in crisis. If Minister Jonathan Attard doesn't resign, then the Prime Minister should remove him from his position without delay."
"Attard failed to address serious problems that exist within the justice system and ended up blaming others for the crisis the courts have found themselves in. Citizens and businesses ended up being victims of Minister Attard's failure, and are having to suffer the consequences due to lack of planning and investment to improve the system," the statement read.
The PN holds that "it is a big mistake for the government to continue considering the appointment of more judges and magistrates as the solution to the large problem that the justice system has, with the biggest issue being exaggerated delays in the hearing of cases. Judges and magistrates without the necessary workers and resources cannot perform the miracles that the Justice Minister is expecting of them."
The PN said that the Finance Minister must, immediately, drastically revise the financial allocation for the justice sector for next year, "to ensure that every judge and magistrate would have enough employees with the necessary skills and experience assigned directly to them, in order to assist them in carrying out their duties."
This, the PN said, should lead to an improvement in pay for Court Services Agency workers, that would start attracting more people who are academically prepared and have an understanding regarding legal practices and procedures.
The PN also praised the three new judges.
PL takes aim at PN
The Labour Party, in reaction, said that if someone has to resign, "it is those who attack the institutions all the time and try to manipulate them so that they would serve them instead of justice."
"This is what people in the PN, and people close to the PN who pull its strings, do," the Labour Party alleged.
The PL said that the government is allocating a large budget to the justice sector, €60 million. "The aim for this is for citizens to be better served, where to achieve this everyone must do their part. There is no doubt that the government is doing its part. This investment means an increase of 21% over the previous year."
The Labour Party said that the entities under the justice ministry all registered a substantial increase in their allocated budget. It went on to say that over the past two years the ministry of justice introduced a number of important reforms aimed at making the justice system more effective, and also said that the largest number of adjudicators was appointed. "In the same way, it has the largest number of workers working in the Court Services Agency, who benefitted from a new collective agreement." The party also said that the country today has the largest number of prosecutors working in the Attorney General's office.
"While investment must continue, those who do not recognise what was done would only be playing a political game."