‘Shortage of judiciary members not addressed properly’ – Retiring judge

Retiring judge Lawrence Quintano has called on the government to increase the number of judiciary members, claiming that the “astounding” ratio between judiciary members and the number of cases is not properly addressed. 

While conceding that the government has budgetary constraints and that “it cannot do any miracles” to address the shortage of adjudicators, Quintano insisted that the personnel within the law courts is very stretched and limited to the extent that it is resulting in unnecessary delays.

“The shortage of adjudicators is not being addressed enough, neither by the government nor by the media. The personnel at the law courts is very stretched. More needs to be done to address this issue,” Quintano said.

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano, who turns 65 at the end of the month, delivered his final speech as judge this morning before retiring. As is customary, judiciary members are requested their resignation when attaining the age of 65.

But in what is normally a highly attended event, Quintano’s retirement discourse was only attended to by fellow judiciary members, relatives, lawyers, and some department officials. In what is best described as a low-key event, no justice ministry officials attended, and as opposed to previous retirement speeches, no invites were distributed.

Quintano, who has previously adjudicated over drug cases, insisted that prior to implementing any amendments to the law, parliament must first examine the emotions and the humane element involved in drug cases.

“The emotions involved in youths are far greater than those involved in other offences. There is nothing worse than seeing a woman crying because her son was sent to prison.”

Admitting that it is difficult to juggle between emotions and the law, Quintano underlined that it is not easy to draw up a sentence while seeing a defendant begging for help or a father calling for justice because his child as a result of drugs.

“It is difficult to suppress one’s emotions but you cannot discriminate. You must abide by the law. It is therefore very refreshing when you see an accused reforming and learning from his mistakes.”

The retiring judge also called for a humane element to be prevalent among youths found guilty of criminal offences, arguing that as soon as they come out of prison, they would be seriously burdened with their criminal past.

“There is nothing worse than seeing a youth in his crime emerging from prison and discovering he has ruined his life because of his criminal past. It is therefore necessary for all sides to pull the same rope and ensure that no one is condemned because of his criminal history.”

“Otherwise,” Quintano said, “logic states that if these youths do not find work they will inevitably reoffend.”

Quintano also recommended that appeals filed before the Court of Magistrates should start to be heard by three judges instead of one, and argued that the set-up of constitutional referring should be changed to avoid longer sittings.