Pending court cases drop by 11% in three years - Owen Bonnici

Pending court cases drop by 11% in three years

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said that the rate of pending court cases overall had dropped by 11% in the last three years and that more cases had been cleared than opened in the same period of time.

Speaking at an information seminar about the justice reform, Bonnici reviewed some of the achievements so far and looked forward to further changes in the near future.

"Law courts are not just places where cases are settled, but the justice system also has an impact on the county's economy," Bonnici said, adding that a country's justice system often had a direct impact on whether or not a foreign company decided to extend its services to another country.

Bonnici said that the justice system reform was a response to the perception that the local justice system is not as efficient as it should be, particularly in comparison to other EU states.

Bonnici pledged the government's commitment to continue working towards better quality services, more efficiency and strengthening the justice institutions. 

He added that the changes so far included the amendment of censorship laws as well as the drug law reform, and making various legal documents available online.

Senior official Joanne Battistino explained that the justice scoreboard was an EU-wide information board to take stock of civil cases in local justice systems of the member states and that Malta had been in a particularly low position so far.

"The scoreboard measures independence, quality and efficiency, which includes clearance rates, pending caseloads and the length of proceedings," Battistino said. 

Battistino also added that the rate of lawyers in Malta in 2013 was much higher than the EU average, with an average of 261 lawyers per 100,000 people compared to the EU average of 165 per 100,000.