Four lawyers to be appointed magistrates

The Office of the President has announced that four lawyers are to be appointed magistrates in a fresh round of judicial appointees.

Lawyers Noel Bartolo, Leonard Caruana, Lara Lanfranco and Elaine Mercieca were selected by the Judicial Appointments Committee from a list of applicants.

Earlier this year, a public call for applications had been issued by the Justice Ministry and 28 applications were received by the committee.

President George Vella accepted the committee’s unanimous recommendation.

The Office of the President said the other nominees who the committee also considered as suitable for appointment to the Bench were lawyers Abigail Critien, Ilona Debono, Joseph Gatt, Jean Paul Grech, Maria  Karlsson; Elizabeth Quintano, Nadia Helena Vella and Claudio Zammit.

Thursday's appointments follow the recent depletion of the pool of available magistrates due to retirement and promotions.

Magistrates Neville Camilleri and Audrey Demicoli and lawyers Christian Falzon Scerri and Ian Spiteri Bailey were appointed judges in April.

Subsequently the government faced calls for an increase in the number of magistrates.

Reacting to the news, the Association of Judges and Magistrates had said it was disappointed that the government had issued a call for only four new magistrates and not six, as the effective increase in the number of working magistrates would be of just two.

Another important judicial milestone for our #RuleofLaw process: 4 new magistrates appointed to the bench following a transparent & objective process.

We remain determined to strengthen our judiciary, while ensuring, accessible & efficient justice 🇲🇹 ⚖️

— Edward Zammit-Lewis (@ZammitLewisEdw) May 27, 2021

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis welcomed the new appointments, which were made in line with new procedures introduced by the government last year that removed the executive's say in the appointment of judges and magistrates.

"We remained determined to strengthen our judiciary, while ensuring accessible and efficient justice," Zammit Lewis said.