Justice Minister Jonathan Attard has pledged to reorganise the Gozo court system and hire more workers for its court house, an association of Gozitan lawyers has said.

Avukati Għawdex said that its representatives had met with the minister on Friday to highlight several concerns about the current court system in Gozo.

Lawyers on the island had formed their own lobby group and gone on strike last year, as their frustration with ongoing problems reached a head.

They say that the court house in Victoria is run-down, too small and inadequately equipped and that there is a lack of court staff, leading to court delays, documents being lost and cases not being notified.

Shortcomings within the court building itself led the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to begin court action against the court’s director ġeneral and Court Services Agency chief. They responded by pledging to fix problems within a matter of weeks.

In their statement on Saturday, Gozitan lawyers said that the minister was receptive to their complaints and had pledged to address them.

The minister also reportedly told the lawyers that the case notification system would be changed, and said that a court marshal from Malta’s law courts would be sent to Gozo whenever needed until those changes were in effect.

Plans to develop a new court house for Gozo have languished for years, with no sign of the project being restarted. A €12 million design presented with considerable fanfare in 2016 was quietly dropped one year later, reportedly at the new Gozo Minister's insistence.