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When Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici became Parliamentary Secretary responsible for justice, he divested himself of his role as a lawyer working in our courts, kept his assignment as lecturer in Roman Law at the University of Malta (Notary Tony Abela please note: they can lecture but you cannot work as a notary), and embarked on a mission which would be remembered as Code CMB.
His first accomplishment was how to lambaste Napoleon from the grave and turn his code, Code Napoleon, on which our legal structure is based, upside down so that he has rendered us lawyers law students again by having to study the new procedures that he wants to remain famous for. His constant mood in turning the tables and introducing new procedures in our legal system render Napoleon stupid and Sir Arturo Mercieca and all the famous jurists who have enriched our legal system amateurs.
His father and his uncle both seem to be proud of what he is doing and when I confronted them about the matter, his father boldly told me that his son is making the law courts more accessible to the public. I am sure that they have his blessing but I do not believe that they actually see further than the text of the English or Maltese version of the new procedures introduced. As otherwise how can one explain that at times you find the text in Maltese says one thing, and the text in English says another?
How can one explain that deadlines now start to run in some cases from the date of filing and not from the date of notification? How can one explain that arbitration in motor vehicle cases is more expensive than going to court? How can one explain the imposition of arbitration? How can one explain mediation in the family court when separation is still on the increase? How can one explain the appointment of advocates for children when these are never around?
But Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici wants to leave his mark during his term in office and he is constantly reminding us in the newspapers of his achievements so far. He is lucky that he has a Chamber of Advocates that is reluctant to issue any press releases condemning the state of affairs. I remember the Chamber in the seventies and eighties and that was the Chamber which stood up to the government of the time. The only difference is that its members were not being fed by the government with retainers here and there to keep their mouths shut.
For Dr Mifsud Bonnici, the law courts can run smoothly and be more accessible as long as they are empowered by his amendments. However, it is not change in the civil procedure that makes the courts run efficiently, but a smart infrastructure which allows the staff and the judiciary to work. For those who want to keep their eyes shut, let me remind them of the problems that exist today in the law courts.
A genius had the brilliant idea of spending all the funds for the year 2006, that is in the first two months, on the entrance to the law courts. Let alone that the scanner, after it was inaugurated with pomp, went bust and it took some time to be back in operation. But what is happening is that the budget has all been utilised and there is no money, not even to buy paper. I remember I was at a sitting last week before a magistrate and asked to see the list of cases for the day and the clerk told me that they do not have it available as there is no paper. I looked at the magistrate and he confirmed that they would not give them paper to work with.
The accessibility of the law courts to the public is limited to one lift which was originally designed to bring the chained accused from the lock-up up to the law courts. This lift only goes to the second floor of the building so that the old and the handicapped and even us who work there either have no access to the court sittings on the top floor or have to make an effort to go to the third and fourth floors. I invite you to come and see the old people struggling against the railings trying to make their way around. But no elderly group and no National Commission for Disabled Persons seems to find any problem with this situation.
If Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici still does not know, the other two elevators will be out of circulation for another two months, and those who have no strength to go on the fourth floor for the court sittings are asking to have their sittings postponed to a later date.
Neither does the judiciary seem to find any problem in being in the elevator with the accused who appear before them for judgment. Once this lift got stuck and there was one of them who asked the police to unchain him because he knew how to get the passengers safely on the ground.
To top it all, despite the amendments allowing creditors a fair deal out of the service at the law courts, the latest is that the court marshals who execute the judicial acts like warrants and judicial letters, have been ordered to do their work and execute the service of these acts in the morning only. This means that the poor creditor is going to wait more to see whether his debtor has been notified. And mind you, this is a service that the creditors pay for. However and oddly enough, we are still paying for the service in the evenings when the service has now been suspended.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici is very proud of the amendments he introduced so that a creditor can file a judicial letter instead of a writ of summons, provided his claim is less than Lm5,000. However, he stopped short of allowing the system to work against those callous debtors who know their way around and remain untraceable. This is because the judicial letter system does not apply to notification by publication in the local newspapers and the government gazette. The debtor is being aided more by the system as he does not have to notify the creditor of his opposition to the claim in the judicial letter, so that the creditor is unable to pursue his claim.
The public does not want further amendments to the law. They want efficient law courts wherein they do not have to wait a month to check the outcome of the notification, wherein they do not have to wait months for their monies to be deposited in court, wherein they have accessibility to all the floors in the law courts, wherein they do not have to incur extra expenses by going to arbitration, where they can get justice and a good service.
But unless Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici puts the amendments aside, and concentrates more on the establishment, it will be useless to introduce timeframes against timeframes when he does not have the infrastructure to keep up these timeframes. I know that there is a lot of ass licking going on at the moment because this year there will be a vacancy for three magistrates and a judge, but this does not mean that we have to sell our soul for that.
And another thing: is it possible that Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici does not find any left-wing lawyers to fill the list of curators and advocates for legal aid that he publishes from time to time?
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