Claim: Ryan Spagnol’s sentence was not immediately published on the courts’ online database, as always happens.

Verdict: In cases like Spagnol’s, sentences are rarely, if ever, published online. One exception is if a party appeals the judgement, as Spagnol is doing in this case.

News that Ryan Spagnol, Robert Abela’s cabinet secretary, had been caught drink-driving filtered through on Thursday, after former PN MP Jason Azzopardi posted screenshots taken from the court’s sentence to his Facebook page.

The screenshots revealed how Spagnol had been caught driving with almost twice the legal limit in the days leading up to last Christmas.

Spagnol was later charged and found guilty of three of the four charges he faced by magistrate Jean Paul Grech on May 24. He was ordered to pay a €1,800 fine and had his driving licence confiscated for six months.

The news remained out of public view until the judgment was published on the court’s online system in mid-August, almost three months later.

Writing on Facebook, Azzopardi claimed that the fact that the sentence wasn't immediately uploaded "as always happens", was deliberate and could only have taken place upon the orders of Robert Abela ("there's no other way").

Azzopardi argued that the publication was timed to coincide with last week’s public holiday, in the hope that it would go unnoticed.

But lawyers and court officials who spoke to Times of Malta say that things are a little more complicated and that judgments in cases like Spagnol’s are rarely published online in the first place.

What is this online system?

Malta’s courts allow the public to look up details of past and present court cases through an online platform called eCourts, administered by the Court Services Agency, an agency that falls under the justice ministry.

When searching for a court case, users are presented with some basic details, including who is involved in the case, the name of the magistrate or judge presiding over the case, and what type of case it happens to be (whether it’s a civil or criminal case, if it’s a constitutional matter, whether it’s an appeal to a previous sentence, and so forth).

Once a case is decided, users can also download a transcript of the court’s decree, laying out the magistrate’s verdict, their reasoning behind it, as well as the punishment that is being meted out.

Are all sentences automatically uploaded?

Not quite, according to several lawyers and court officials who spoke to Times of Malta.

While many sentences do make their way to the online system, several other minor cases do not. In most cases, judgments are published online on the same day they are handed down, though days-long delays are not unusual.   

Lawyers say that in cases of summary proceedings which carry a potential sentence of under two years’ imprisonment, sentences are rarely logged on the online system.

They point to several examples of this – minor collisions, district cases, minor tax fraud, hunting infringements, minor disputes and so on. All of these tend to be left off the system and their sentences are seldom even typed out, let alone uploaded online.

Instead, the magistrate’s decree tends to simply be written down on the charge sheet.

Minor traffic-related cases, such as the one involving Spagnol, almost always face the same fate.

The reasons behind this are a matter of practicality, sources say. With Malta’s courts being notoriously understaffed and slow, wasting precious time on transcribing sentences of minor cases is deemed not to be a priority.

Jason Azzopardi (left) claimed that Ryan Spagnol's (right) sentence should have immediately appeared online. Photos: File photo (left) and Facebook/Ryan Spagnol (right)

So in what cases do such sentences end up online? 

While it is not customary for sentences of summary proceedings to be automatically uploaded online, there may be some cases in which they are typed out and eventually uploaded, court sources say.

This could happen for several reasons.

One is if one of the parties chooses to file an appeal against the original judgment - though some lawyers who spoke to Times of Malta recounted cases in which judgments were not uploaded online even after an appeal was lodged. 

Such sentences also end up online if somebody (either one of the two parties involved in the case or anybody else, including members of the public) requests a copy of the sentence.

But, according to lawyers who spoke to Times of Malta, even in cases where the sentence is typed out, it is rarely, if ever, uploaded to the online system.

Ultimately, court sources say, a magistrate can choose to instruct court clerks to type out a sentence and upload it, but this is far from common practice when it comes to minor cases.

When contacted by Times of Malta, Spagnol confirmed that he has filed an appeal against the conviction. Spagnol said he lodged the appeal in June. It has yet to be heard.  

Justice ministry responds

Replying to questions, a justice ministry spokesperson said that “cases of ordinary competence (such as traffic offences which carry the penalty of less than two years prison) are only typed if requested by the parties or in case of appeal”.

In the case of Magistrate Jean Paul Grech - the magistrate who heard Spagnol's case - only 12 of the 189 sentences he handed down between April (when he started hearing cases) and July were uploaded.

“These would be cases where a formal copy has been prepared on request,” the spokesperson said.

Verdict

Although many sentences are published on the courts’ searchable online database, the majority of minor cases involving a potential sentence of less than two years’ imprisonment – such as the case involving Spagnol – remain unpublished.

The justice ministry, as well as court sources, say that the only instances in which these types of sentences are eventually typed and published are when somebody has requested a copy, either as part of an appeals process, by one of the parties to the case, or even by a member of the public.

Lawyers who spoke to Times of Malta say that even in those cases, the sentences are often not necessarily uploaded, but may simply be typed out and handed to whoever is requesting a copy.

The reasons why Spagnol's sentence was eventually published remain unclear, although it may well have been spurred by the appeal he filed in June. It is also not known whether there were any efforts to hide matters under the carpet. But the fact that the sentence did not immediately make it onto the online system is not unusual.

The claim is therefore misleading as although the claim may, in itself, be partly or entirely true, it is presented in a manner that is not representative of the facts within a broader context.

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