Judge forced to hear court cases from corridor tables
Courtroom shortage forces judge to turn the corridors of the Law Courts into a makeshift hall
A judge was forced to hear cases from two tables in a corridor at the Law Courts on Thursday after the courtroom assigned to her was occupied and no other hall was available.
Justice Brigitte Sultana was hearing witnesses and dealing with lawyers from a table right outside Hall 22, in plain sight of everyone else in the building, after the hall she had been assigned to was occupied.
With no other courtrooms left to work from, she began hearing her cases from the corridor.
The judge’s cases were scheduled to be heard in Hall 21, but the hall was occupied by Judge Henri Mizzi for the first hours of the morning.
By 10am, his cases were concluded, and judge Brigitte Sultana moved to her original courtroom.
This incident is a symptom of a wider issue concerning the lack of capacity in the law courts.
Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti has consistently warned that the court system is slowly collapsing due to the small size of the courts, which have not expanded with the increasing workload placed on the judiciary.
In 2022, the Chief Justice urged the government to invest in buildings around Valletta that could house specialised courts, such as the Commercial Court and the Criminal Court.
He had also pointed out that the Family Court, which operates from a small building just around the corner of the main courts, is too small to handle the load of sensitive cases assigned to it.
There have been efforts to secure new buildings. In October 2025, the Lands Authority signed over ownership of a Valletta building that will eventually serve as the new commercial court.
A month later, the government bought the former Downtown Hotel in Victoria so that it could be used as the site of a new Gozo law court.
Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to judge Brigitte Sultana as a magistrate. She was sworn in as a judge in April.