Malta’s justice system registered a significant improvement between 2010 and 2012 – but remains the most inefficient in the EU after Portugal.
The island had the second-lengthiest court procedures during 2012 when it came to civil, commercial and administrative cases, according to the latest Justice Scoreboard, published in Brussels yesterday.
On average, it took 707 working days from the time a case was filed for a first judgment to be handed down. This did not include the duration of an appeal, which normally took many more years to conclude.
Lawyers are not scarce in Malta with 332 per 100,000 inhabitants
In Portugal, the average duration of a case stood at 860 days.
Compared with 2010, Malta’s “justice delay” average in 2012 was significantly down by 159 days.
However, the improvement registered between 2010 and 2012 did not have any impact on Malta’s ranking.
It remains 27th out of 28 member states. Last year, the European Commission warned Malta in its annual country-specific recommendations to make necessary reforms in its judicial system to improve the situation.
When the government was elected a year ago it commissioned a number of reports, which included recommendations on the way forward and radical changes needed.
Apart from efficiency, this year’s EU scoreboard also measured the justice system’s quality and independence.
Although Malta is generally considered to have an independent judiciary – placing 38 out of 148 systems worldwide according to the World Economic Forum – the quality of its judicial system was called into question.
According to the report, while Malta compares well to other member states when it comes to monitoring what was happening in the courtrooms, the island failed miserably in evaluating the data and implementing remedies.
While the Maltese system has defined quality standards, there are no performance and quality indicators or any regular evaluation systems.
Specialised court staff entrusted with quality policy and implementation are non-existent.
Training for judiciary members is also severely lacking, with Malta being one of a handful of member states – the others are Cyprus, Finland and Sweden – with no compulsory training for judges and magistrates.
The scoreboard shows that Malta still has a very small judiciary when compared with the rest of the EU.
There are only nine judges per 100,000 inhabitants. Only Denmark and Ireland have fewer.
On the other hand, Slovenia has 47 judges per 100,000 inhabitants, even though the country does not have the most efficient justice system in the EU.
Lawyers are not scarce in Malta, with 332 per 100,000 inhabitants, the fourth-highest average in the EU.
According to the scoreboard, Denmark had the most efficient justice system in the EU in 2012 with a first judgment for a commercial or civil case delivered within 17 days from filing.