Government to appeal court decision on mandatory arbitration

The government was appealing a recent court decision which found mandatory arbitration in traffic collision cases as being unconstitutional, Parliamentary Secretary Carm Mifsud Bonnici told Parliament yesterday.

He said that Mr Justice Tonio Mallia would probably not have given that sentence had some facts and figures been available to him.

The government was insisting that activity should continue as normal in the Arbitration Tribunal and one would then see what the Constitutional Appeals Court decided and act accordingly, he said.

Earlier, opposition justice spokesman Anglu Farrugia said that the court judgment had yet again vindicated the opposition's longstanding criticism of mandatory arbitration.

Mandatory arbitration by a tribunal which was not viewed to be independent had in the past also raised the concern of the Commission for the Administration of Justice, Dr Farrugia recalled, but the government had carried on regardless.

The recent court judgment, however, had caused chaos, with many cases before the Arbitration Tribunal being put off until the situation was clarified. But it appeared that the government would remain stubborn, with Dr Mifsud Bonnici saying that the government would appeal. What it should be doing was to remedy matters, Dr Farrugia said.

Speaking in Parliament during the budget debate, Dr Farrugia also referred to the current controversy over whether Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco and Magistrate Antonio Mizzi were going against the code of ethics by heading sports organisations. He said that independently of the comments of the Commission for the Administration of Justice, these two judges had a right to see what their rights were. Certainly, their participation in the sports organisations had brought no dishonour for Malta. What was shameful, Dr Farrugia said, was how Net TV had carried pictures of the judges only with the Labour leader, seemingly to imply political involvement when pictures of these two judges with the Prime Minister and the Archbishop were also available.

This was harmful to the judiciary as a whole and he wanted to express solidarity with these two judges and others in a similar predicament.

In his speech Dr Farrugia said the administration of justice had too many chiefs and too few troops. Funds had been squandered and too little went for staff training. The engagement of casual assistants had not worked well because these people lacked training and experience. Furthermore, the turnover of deputy registrars was too high. All this had led Labour to promise a reform of the law courts administration, giving incentives to employees so that they could be of better service.

Dr Farrugia praised Magistrate Ellul for his work at the Gozo courts but complained that long-standing problems in the administration of the court there had also not been addressed.

Dr Farrugia also called on ministers to explain why a direct order was issued for doors and windows for the Family Court and the hire cars at the ministry.

In his reply, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the government was streamlining court procedures and had managed to reduce the backlog of cases before the courts. Pending appeal cases decreased by 25 per cent between 2004 and August 2007. The introduction of the procedure of official letters for uncontested debt recovery had been a huge success with 9,292 letters being filed.

The Small Claims Tribunal had decided 19,238 or 94 per cent of the 20,460 cases filed since its inception in 1995.

He also referred to the Gozo courts and said that the two magistrates were working in tandem with the result that cases decided increased from 140 in August last year to 230 in August this year.

Arbitration Tribunals had decided 1,102 or 77 per cent of the 1,303 cases filed between 2002 and yesterday.

Trials by jury decided in 2007 would amount to four times those decided in 2004.

During the past three years, mediators at the Family Court had managed to reconcile 222 persons.

As a result, fewer court cases for separation were being filed.

Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said that between 2003-07 the number of pending court cases had been reduced by 22 per cent, with particular success having been achieved in debt recovery cases. Court administration had been moved to a new floor and was working more efficiently.

The government, Dr Borg said, had substantially increased funding for the Attorney General's Office and strengthening the law drafting process.