News • 20 July 2003

Almost half of court cases in Gozo’s civil court are over five years old

Kurt Sansone

The moaning and groaning about court cases that take far too long to be decided would seem to be justified and statistics confirm the scales of justice are saddled with a substantial amount of cases have seen many moons pass and remain undecided.

As of May this year, of the more than 7,500 cases pending in front of the First Hall of the Civil Court in Malta, 40 per cent have been pending for five years and over. The situation is far worse in Gozo where more than 48 per cent of the 1,305 pending cases have been dragging on for five years and more.

The situation is less worrying in the Magistrates Court in Malta where ‘old’ cases represent 16 per cent of the total. However, not the same can be said of the Magistrates Court in Gozo with 35 per cent of pending cases going back five years or more.

Despite the high amount of ‘old’ cases, the backlog for the first five months of the year has been reduced with judges and magistrates deciding more cases than the number of new ones assigned to them.

The First Hall in Malta saw 575 new cases between January and May with judges, however, deciding 1,000 cases between them. Gozo portrays a different story. In contrast with the 94 new cases only 106 were decided, reducing the backlog of the First Hall by a mere 12 cases.

On the other hand, the Magistrates Court in Malta took decisions on 409 cases between January and May. The figure compares favourably with the 293 new cases submitted in the same period and represents a reduction of 116 cases in the backlog. Up until May the Magistrates Court in Malta had a pending list of over 1,400 cases.

In Gozo, however, magistrates decided only 19 cases which, when contrasted with the 14 new cases submitted, represents a reduction in the backlog of a mere five cases. The Magistrates Court in Gozo has 285 pending cases.

The figures portray a mixed picture of members of the judiciary that are performing well and others that take ages to decide the cases before them. Of particular significance is the good performance of the new judges, Raymond C. Pace and Philip Sciberras. Justice Pace has consistently reduced the backlog of cases before him. Between January and May Justice Pace decided 270 cases. With 147 decided cases under his belt, Justice Sciberras’ performance is also commendable.

Newly appointed Judge in June this year, Dr Joe Azzopardi, has had to contend with a pending caseload of 900 in the First Hall of the Civil Court. However, after barely one month on the bench Justice Azzopardi has got cracking with 22 cases decided under his belt.

kurt@maltamag.com