Divorce referendum victor takes lion’s share of cases

The figurehead of the 2011 divorce campaign Deborah Schembri has had 57 divorce cases filed in court over the past nine months, the highest number of cases for any lawyer.

Proof that the successful divorce referendum campaign bolstered the family lawyer's legal practice comes from official data provided by the Justice Ministry for the period between 1 October 2011 and 3 August, in which 615 divorces were filed.

Of these, 391 cases have been decided.

Schembri, now a Labour candidate, had the highest number of these cases representing just over 9% of the entire divorce caseload during the past nine months.

This also means that she could have potentially earned over €70,000 covering such cases.

Schembri, who charges €1,300 to represent clients in divorce cases in court, had initially refuted suggestions that she was the lawyer with the most divorce cases, insisting it was a "misnomer".

But when presented with the figures, Schembri said that it was obvious that following the divorce campaign she became more renowned.

"It's like a doctor on TV who gets more patients because they recognise his face. Is there anything wrong with that?" she told MaltaToday, adding that she really didn't care about how many clients other lawyers got.

Schembri, added that clients go to her legal office not only because she headed the campaign but because she knows how to do her job: "People have faith in me and, after all, clients have every right to choose their lawyer."

Even though the legal tariff for a divorce as set by Justice Minister Chris Said stands at €193, Schembri's fee is €1,300. This applies for cases where the couple has already been legally separated, and is only pending a divorce application four years after separation.

Defensive of her fee, Schembri insists that the fee reflects the weight and responsibility of a lawyer that goes with a person's change of status. "Of course it's justified... a seven-day trip to Euro Disney costs even more than changing one's marital status," she said.

Schembri added that irrespective of whether one was filing an application, or appearing seven times before court, "a lawyer's expertise is not quantified by the number of papers filed".

"My fees are not illegal and my clients are satisfied with the service I give. I don't slash prices to lure other lawyers' clients. I know that other lawyers ask clients how much I charge so they can ask them for a cheaper fee," she said.

Schembri reiterated that her fee included registry, legal procurators' fees, affidavits, client's adverts in the government gazette and two local newspapers.

"Did the minister include these when he set the legal fee? No, because he simply cut corners to speed up the process," she said.

The same data shows Labour MP and lawyer Owen Bonnici represented clients in 22 cases. Although not forming part of the pro-divorce movement Iva in 2011, Bonnici coordinated the legal amendments in talks with government MP Francis Zammit Dimech who coordinated the Nationalists' position on the divorce bill.

Another 20 cases were taken up by Sharon Mizzi, 14 by Ludvic Caruana, and 11 by Lorraine Schembri Orland. The remaining 491 cases were divided amongst some 200 lawyers.

In a comment to this newspaper, MP Owen Bonnici said he has always "strictly applied the established legal fees, a norm also adopted in the family court cases that I have long been handling."

The lawyers with the most divorce cases between 1 October and 3 August

Divorce cases between 1 October and 3 August