Malta has many lawyers and judges, but court system not performing adequately

Malta has a high rate of judges, magistrates, and especially lawyers for its population of 420,000 - well above the EU average - but the court system "is not performing adequately and needs improvement", an EU scoreboard on justice systems across the 27 member states found.

READ Study from the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ) prepared for the European Commission: The functioning of judicial systems and the situation of the economy in the European Union Member States 

According to the report, which found a lack of data to compare the justice budgets with the clearance rates of court cases, it looks like the timely and efficient disposition of cases "is more a matter of distribution and efficiency of use and procedural complexity, and less a matter of amount of resources that are allocated."

But the report says that effective mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the efficiency of courts need to be introduced: "Efforts need to be done to increase productivity, including through more active case management... Data collection can be improved in order to better monitor the efficiency of the system, including the monitoring of the number of hearings per category of cases."

Malta has 9.3 full-time professional judges per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to an EU27 average of 18.9. The number of lawyers per 100,000 inhabitants is 287.3, compared to an EU27 average of 160.7, while the ratio of lawyers to full-time professional judges is 30.8, compared to an EU27 average of 16.2.

But the clearance rate of civil cases is worsening, the report finds. In 2010, the clearance rate of 88.1% meant that pending cases were increasing.

In 2010, the budget allocated to all courts was 0.39% of general government expenditure, compared to an EU27 average of 0.44%.

"The functioning of the judicial system is subject to debates in Malta. Attempts were made in the past to control the actions of the members of the judiciary and a Code of Ethics has recently been approved by the Commission for the Administration of Justice. Amendments to the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure were made recently in order to facilitate the enforcement of executive titles as well as to introduce a pre-trial stage so as to accelerate the judicial process.

"The number of judges and magistrates is always an issue of contestation as the Judicial Body complains that there should be more members of the judiciary. Amendments are presently discussed in order to improve the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure. Discussions are also underway to improve the judicial system across the board," the report says.

The European Commission's comparative tool to promote effective justice systems focuses on the parameters of a justice system which contribute to the improvement of the business and investment climate.

The Justice Scoreboard also finds that the length of judicial proceedings varies considerably between EU member states, with 30% having a length of proceedings at least two times greater than the majority of member states.

Perceptions of the independence of national justice systems also vary widely. Even though several member states are among the top 10 worldwide leaders in terms of the perception of judicial independence, there is a rather low level of perception of judicial independence by business end-users of the justice system in certain member states.

The European Commission is now inviting member states, the European Parliament and all stakeholders to take part in an open dialogue about how to continue the improvement of national justice systems in the EU.