Courts will be relieved of dealing with minor crimes in depenalisation exercise

The use of obscene language in public will land you in front of a justice commissioner rather than a magistrate in the near future.

The change forms part of an extensive depenalisation process unveiled today by Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi.

The exercise will see justice commissioners granted further powers to preside over hearings of minor offences instead of the Magistrates’ Court. Justice commissioners are those who preside over local tribunals dealing with traffic offences.

Zammit Lewis said on Wednesday the Law Commissioner was tasked with revising the Criminal Code to identify offences that have a minimum impact on persons or property.

With this exercise now finalised, a draft bill will be submitted to parliament so that these offences can be removed from the competence of courts and transferred to justice commissioners.

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis

Zammit Lewis said this is tied to government’s aim of increasing efficiency in certain sectors of the courts. While some sections of the courts work with the same efficiency as those of foreign jurisdictions, he admitted that some bottlenecks exist. The EU rule of law report highlighted court delays as a significant issue of concern.

“The end scope is to strengthen the efficiency of the courts so that they can focus on more important crimes, such as economic ones,” Zammit Lewis said.

Commissioner for Laws Antonio Mizzi said that a similar exercise could be conducted on other laws.

He added that a legal notice will explain in more detail the specific offences that will now fall under the competence of the commissioners. A list of offences was not provided at the press conference.

Zammit Lewis specified that the failure to pay child maintenance will remain a criminal offence to be dealt with by the Court of Magistrates. However, a situation where someone used foul language but where no further physical harm is done, will instead be heard by the Commissioners for Justice.

“What is deserving of a hard sanction will remain under the magistrate,” he said.

He insisted that such offences will still be considered a breach in the law with the only difference being the case will be heard by the commissioners.