Court cases in Malta take between double and eight times as long to be concluded as the average in the EU, according to a new European report.
Civil cases in the courts of first instance take, at the median, 440 days to reach a conclusion, more than double the EU’s 201 days. But the situation for cases in civil courts of the second instance – when cases are appealed – is much worse. The figure shoots up to 1,119 days, more than eight times the 141-day EU average, the report by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice found.
Criminal cases take 298 days, also more than double the EU median of 122 days. But second-instance criminal cases take 534 days compared to the 104-day average – five times the length of time.
Administrative cases take 1,056 days to be concluded, more than four times the 241-day average in the EU.
The commission forms part of the Council of Europe and its report was issued this week but is based on 2018 figures. It contains data about the functioning of the judicial systems of 45 European states as well as three observer states, Morocco, Israel and Kazakhstan.
Malta currently has a chief justice, 24 judges and 22 magistrates, with the last appointment of members of the judiciary dating back to April 2019, when three judges and three magistrates were appointed.
The issue of court delays is a perennial problem for Malta’s judicial system. At the beginning of the Forensic Year, Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti described it as its “biggest challenge” and called on the government to appoint more judges as the effort being put in by the judiciary was not enough to solve the problem.
He said members of the judiciary were doing their utmost to decide on cases speedily while being careful to respect the dignity of all those who appeared before them.
Despite their efforts, at much personal and family sacrifice, the challenge of court delays could not be properly addressed unless the numbers increased, he insisted. The same argument was echoed on Wednesday by the Association of Judges and Magistrates which said the judiciary must grow in number to cope with its current workload.
The CoE report also finds that human resources dedicated to the justice system are lagging in terms of numbers.
Malta has half the number of judges and magistrates per 100,000 inhabitants as the EU average, with 9.5 compared to 17.7.
The island is ahead of the EU average in terms of non-judicial staff but lags in the number of prosecutors for every 100,000 inhabitants, with just four compared to the 11.2 in the EU.
Malta beats the EU average by almost three times in the number of practising lawyers, with 322.7 against 123.
Regarding financial resources, Malta spends €46.8 per inhabitant on justice against the EU average of €61.30, and just €0.60c on legal aid against the €2.67 spent in the EU.
Court taxes are double the EU average, with €14.50 compared to just €7.67 in the bloc.