More minor crimes to be decided by justice commissioners

A raft of minor crimes will be handled by justice commissioners instead of magistrates in a major legal review that will be unveiled shortly, Edward Zammit Lewis said.

The Justice Minister said in parliament on Monday that the exercise was undertaken by Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi, a retired judge.

Zammit Lewis said that Mizzi carried out a legal study to identify minor crimes that can be offloaded from the courts and be decided by justice commissioners.

“In this way, we will allow magistrates to deal with the more serious cases,” Zammit Lewis said, noting that a similar decision was taken in the past on traffic contraventions.

He said the extensive exercise will be unveiled in “the coming days or weeks”.