Justice Minister calls on President to intervene over lawyers’ warrant test impasse

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard has said government is considering amendments to the law if an impasse surrounding a fit and proper test for aspiring lawyers is not resolved.

In a letter to the President George Vella, the justice minister said the impasse is blocking 100 qualified lawyers and legal procurators from getting their warrant. Vella presides over the Commission for the Administration of Justice which handles the warranting of lawyers.

Back in June 2022, MaltaToday was the first to reveal that lawyers may have to divulge any serious physical or mental health problems as part of a controversial test to obtain their warrant.

The ‘fit and proper’ test was drawn up by a committee under the purview of the Commission for the Administration of Justice, a constitutional body. The proposed test, seen by this newspaper, contains a section on health issues in which lawyers are expected to declare current and past physical or mental health problems spanning a 10-year period.

The impasse is holding back the warranting process for more than 100 lawyers and legal procurators, some of had approached this newspaper with concerns over the delay.

The minister referred the president to a communication sent by the secretary of the Commission for the Administration of Justice – a communication which he said only came to his attention from third parties.

Attard said candidates for a warrant to practice were told they could not pass the test due to shortcomings attributed to him.

In his letter, he also pointed out that what was expressed in the communication, did not reflect discussions held between the ministry and the Commission for the Administration of Justice on 27 March.

He said during the meeting he had voiced his concern over the test. Following this, as was agreed, the Justice Ministry had also advised what the reservations and objections were formally and informally in an effort for the same Commission to try and break the impasse.

“The Ministry still holds the belief that the information which the Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators is asking for from candidates who have applied for a warrant is excessive and does not respect the dignity of the individuals and their privacy, to the point that it will leave an effect which discourages people from moving towards the legal profession,” Attard wrote.

He affirmed the Ministry’s commitment to improving professional standards, he can never agree that to receive a warrant one has to declare, amongst other things, whether they suffer from a physical disability, whether they’d gone through a mental illness in the previous decade, whether they had gone through any addictions in the past decade even if they have now recovered, whether they are subject to a civil case – including of a familial nature, and also – what Attard to be the most “unexplainable” -  where they attended primary school.

The Justice Minister therefore appealed for the deadlock to be broken “before we have to consider legislative intervention for justice to be done with the 105 people who have already been examined, approved, have the qualifications, and are competent to practice as lawyers and legal procurators in the Courts of Malta.”