Court tariffs revision 'makes justice more accessible'

Claims by the Labour Party that the recently revised court tariffs hindered citizens' free access to justice were rejected by Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Parliamentary Secretary at the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry, yesterday.

The MLP's spokesman for justice, Anglu Farrugia, on Wednesday painted a bleak picture of the court tariffs that came into effect at the beginning of this month.

"Either my colleague did not read the legal notice or else he needs to resit his law exams," Dr Mifsud Bonnici said when speaking during a press conference at the Justice Ministry, in Valletta.

The parliamentary secretary said that thanks to the legal notice, creditors who were owed sums under Lm5,000 could present an official letter against a debtor for a fee of Lm10. As a result of the amendment, if a debtor failed to reply to the letter within 30 days, the letter would gain the effect of a court sentence.

Such a procedure would be simpler, cheaper and much faster than having to file a civil suit, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

Dr Farrugia had said that car collision cases involving expenses of under Lm1,500 could be heard by an arbiter at the Small Claims Tribunal for a fee of Lm18. Now, he added, the government ruled that all collision cases had to be referred to the arbitration centre, meaning that "clients would have to pay up to Lm200" for a case to be heard.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that until last January, car collisions within the Lm500 and Lm5,000 damage bracket were referred to the arbitration centre. Cases where damages reached Lm500 or below started being referred to the arbitration centre at the beginning of this month.

Contrary to what the opposition was claiming, filing a case at the arbitration centre cost Lm10, that is Lm8 less than the normal charges for filing a case in court.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici explained that cases involving amounts higher than Lm500 paid a fee of Lm53.10c to the arbiter while cases where damages were below Lm500 paid a fee of Lm29.50c. He wondered how Dr Farrugia had come up with the figure of Lm200.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said it was not true that the legal notice had eliminated the 50 per cent cut in charges for actions of dispossession. Actions of dispossession were part of a series of cases - which now included all cases on possessions and promises of sale - where tariffs were cut by 50 per cent.

As to the charge that the government had increased tariffs for a garnishee order from Lm25 to Lm75 on someone leaving the country, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said garnishee orders on children leaving the country had remained at Lm25, adding that the Lm75 fee refers to garnishee orders on ships.

The government had introduced a Lm10 tariff for corrections of birth certificates or cancellations of birth, death and marriage certificates. However, people were effectively saving money when filing a court case because charges for clients had gone down by about 90 per cent.

The government had reduced a number of charges - on photocopies, notification of lawyers and affidavits - which the opposition had labelled "cosmetic". Dr Mifsud Bonnici described these cuts as significant reductions that indeed made justice more accessible to the people.

The government had introduced these measures on August 1 because of a lighter workload in court at this time of the year, he said.