Lost case file leads to judicial protest

The loss of a case file from the law courts led defence lawyer Stefano Filletti to file a judicial protest against the courts' director general after a judge rapped the defendant for filing his submissions late.

In the case, Michael Attard Limited vs Albert Vella, Dr Filletti was representing Vella. On Tuesday, at the end of verbal submissions, judge Anthony Ellul rapped Vella for having his submissions filed late. However his lawyer argued the submissions were filed after his client was notified of the hearing.

Investigations revealed that the case file was lost or misplaced and the lawyer was only notified once the file had been retrieved again. This resulted in his submissions appearing to being filed late due to Vella’s neglect.

The judicial protest read that Judge Ellul was not aware that the file was lost and the truth only surfaced after he had criticised the defendant in open court.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti stated that the courts' director general will be held responsible for any damages that might result from these events.