Gozitan lawyers are taking strike action as from tomorrow, Thursday, the 30th of September and will not attend court hearings held in the Gozo Court, because of a number of issues that had not been addressed, including shortage of staff.

In a statement on Wednesday from Dr. Angele Formosa on behalf of the Advocates practising and appearing before the Gozo Magistrates Court, said that that until there are clear answers on how and when the serious shortcomings mentioned below will be remedied to enable the work of the Courts to proceed normally, they are taking action with effect from tomorrow and will not attend the hearings held in the Gozo Court.

They said that this is with “no disrespect to the Court Authority or their clients” but only because they believe that this is the only way to complain. The lawyers also pointed out that various changes needed had also been pointed out by the employees of the Gozo Court as well as the Magistrates who preside in the Gozo Court.

They added that this is also being done given that despite their efforts in June to attract the attention of the competent authorities and despite the fact that four months have passed, the Gozo Court to date:

Is still without Assistant Registrar;

There is still a shortage of trained and qualified staff;

It is operating without any Marshals stationed in Gozo on a full-time basis;

Deputies are facing difficulties due to labour shortages;

The serious shortcomings in the Court’s building which were identified in separate reports by the Commission for Persons with Disabilities and the Occupational Safety Authority were completely ignored;

Some of the processes are not yet being found, much less are the documents that are supposed to be inserted into it being found;

The injunctions are not being processed until the day of the hearing and the summons has not yet been entered into the process.

Transcripts are not being made on time.

Not all documents, applications, replies and notes are being processed in such a way that they do not even reach the judge and / or the parties in due time.

The documents are also not being traced on the internal system of Courts (Lecam). Nothing is being scanned.

Decrees are not being communicated to interested parties.

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