Sanitizer and clingfilm is the new normal in Malta’s law courts

A semblance of normality is beginning to return to the courts, as some urgent sittings are being heard after the COVID-19 lockdown, but things are still very far away from the way they were before the pandemic hit the Maltese islands.

The courts were closed at the behest of the Superintendent of Public Health on March 16, by virtue of legal notice 65 of 2020. This legal notice applies to all courts and tribunals based in the Valletta court building and their respective registries.

But where possible, the courts have started to hear the most urgent cases and just three days ago, the registry of courts was re-opened for business.

This is not to say that the threat of COVID-19 is being taken lightly by the courts, however. After putting their bags through an X-Ray machine and stepping into a metal detector, as per normal, visitors are now also being zapped with an infrared thermometer. Hand sanitizer pumps have been installed outside every hall and inside the courtrooms themselves, clingfilm separators wrapped around all benches and chairs enforce social distancing. Perspex screens have been installed on most public-facing desks.

When a court is in session, everyone is required to wear a mask covering their nose and mouth - and there is a vast variety of models, colours and shapes on display in your average sitting.

Lawyers spoken to by MaltaToday said it would always be difficult to close the courts to the people. Justice has a public element to it which cannot be easily removed. In criminal matters, parties have to be present and in most civil cases, the parties would want to follow proceedings in the courtroom alongside their lawyer.

Even if the social distancing is sorted out in the courtroom, there are often large groups of people in the corridors, waiting to be called in. 

The immediate solution to slow the growing backlog in cases would be to streamline civil and commercial proceedings and hold them remotely. The criminal courts, sittings of which cannot be held remotely, require a strict diary system to limit the influx of people at any one time. As has happened already, time-critical domestic violence and terrorism-related cases are being given precedence.