Gozitan lawyers who have been taking action for almost a month will meet with the Justice Minister on Monday to try to reach common ground on fixing the deteriorating state of the Gozo courts.

Earlier this month more than 100 sittings of the Gozo courts had to be postponed due to the second action in four months taken by lawyers over the poor condition of the courts.

Gozo lawyers are refusing to attend sittings at the law courts in Victoria but are still doing other, non-court work.

Among their grievances are staff shortcomings, carelessness when handling documents, and facilities in desperate need of improvement.

Addressing a press conference outside the Victoria-based courts on Saturday, president of the newly-formed Gozo Chamber of Advocates Angele Formosa said lawyers would continue not to attend sittings until they were presented with a clear solution to the issue.

"We're meeting with the minister on Monday with a view to get clear timeframes of when we can expect an adequately functioning administration before we revise our position," Formosa told Times of Malta.

Formosa said in order for the Gozo courts to function efficiently there was an urgent need to employ three court marshals as well as 14 trained staff members.

At the moment, there were no court marshals working in the Gozo courts and court ushers were employed in their place, explained Formosa.

Apart from that, the Gozo court needed its own judge and the building needed to conform to health and safety standards as well as accessibility standards.

She added that it was in the interest of the judicial process and the respect for basic rights of the individual that the court administration was functioning in a 'decent manner'.

The Gozo law court building: lawyers have long complained about inadequacies at the court. Photo: Matthew Xuereb

The lawyers had decided to take collective action in June over the same issues but returned to work after being promised the shortcomings would be addressed. However, months later, little had changed, they said.

Formosa explained that over the last few years the administration of the courts had deteriorated exponentially, while promises about bringing the building up to scratch were never honoured.

During this period, they had numerous meetings with the Justice Minister and the Court Services Agency CEO, and while they acknowledged the Agency's efforts to solve the various issues, these issues still existed, she pointed out.

"For this reason, we had no other option but to take drastic action and not attend sittings," she said.

A meeting with the Court Services Agency earlier this month to end the strike also failed with the lawyers arguing the promised measures were not enough.