It is common knowledge that court cases take too long to conclude.

Tackling this issue must be a main priority for the government. Indeed certain reforms, such as those regarding appeals have helped, but it is clear more needs to be done.

Recently, the government appointed three more members to the judiciary. increasing the number of adjudicators is of course necessary, especially given the rising population numbers which, of course, would inevitably mean more court cases.

But this is not enough.

In a statement on Thursday, the Association of the Maltese Judiciary said that, unless the authorities provide the judiciary with adequate resources and competent staff, the judiciary will not be in a position to deliver justice within a reasonable time.

Appointing members of the judiciary without having the necessary support staff, or without having support staff who are trained enough to carry out their duties swiftly and correctly, would restrict the ability of those members of the judiciary to carry out their work more quickly and efficiently.

“Though aware that attempts are being made to attract competent staff in Court, the Association notes, with dismay, that such attempts have failed as competent and well trained persons are not being drawn to work in Court, this being mainly due to the unattractive pay structure currently being offered by the Court Service Agency,” the association said. This is a serious problem, and one that needs to be solved. If a higher pay needs to be offered for the support staff, then the finance minister should allocate a higher budget to this institution.

But that is not the only problem. Space is also a problem. Calls to increase the number of courtrooms have long been made. The association noted the works being carried out in the current court buildings. “Such works are practically sub-dividing currently existing work spaces into smaller work spaces, which works, though able to reduce in the short term some of the problems relating to lack of space in Courts, will end up crowding even more the current Court buildings rendering them more inadequate to suit their purpose,” the association said.

Indeed the association goes as far as to state that the authorities have persistently failed to address, with a long term plan, “the acute problems within the Courts, which problems are now well beyond an acceptable level, being on the brink of collapse, and insist that considering the ever increase in population and workload of the Courts, unless the authorities seriously invest in competent staff and adequate resources, the judiciary will never be able to provide the service they are requested and expected to provide.”

In reaction to this statement, the justice ministry said that investment in the law courts for the coming year is “unprecedented.” The increase in budget, it said, was made with the aim of “continuing to support work towards efficient justice.” It said that this work not only includes legislative reforms, but also investment in physical and digital infrastructure and in human resources. It said that the country today has the biggest number of members of judiciary in history, and also the largest number of workers in the Court Services Agency. Really and truly, on this last point, it would make the problem exceptionally worse if this wasn’t the case given the skyrocketing population numbers the country experienced over the past few years. That statement does not mean that the judiciary association’s points are not valid. They are. The ministry also said that last year the first collective agreement with the court workers was signed, yet clearly if the association is saying there is a problem now regarding staff, then it wasn’t enough. The ministry said that it looks ahead so that, in the coming period, it will continue looking to improving the conditions of court workers. One hopes that this will be the case.

Now one must point out that members of the judiciary must do their utmost to ensure that justice is served well and efficiently, and must ensure that there are no unnecessary delays. If there are ways to improve efficiency, and the ministry mentioned an example about better cooperation for court halls to be used throughout the whole day, then that should be explored. But if the association is saying that there needs to be investment in competent staff and adequate resources, and are also lamenting  “the persistent failure of the authorities to address, with a long term plan, the acute problems within the Courts, which problems are now well beyond an acceptable level,” then the government also needs to listen and act upon the issues. To be frank, if the association feels that there is no long-term plan, that is quite damning on the justice ministry.

The ministry, regarding court space, said that the investment on physical space is not just limited to interventions in the current building, but is also on other buildings that will serve this scope, including on a new building for the Commercial Court, and that tenders will be issued for work on another building to house a number of criminal court rooms. It must be pointed out that investing in court halls in other buildings is good news, although perhaps should have been done a few years ago, given the limited space in the current court, and one hopes that the court buildings are close together in order to avoid lawyers having to travel far when rushing between cases, as that would cause problems.