"Injustice System"

Dear Sir

I wonder if the Minister for Justice in the grand scheme of things has any intention of making justice more accessible and fair to the public and if there is going to be an independent body to deal with complaints a citizen may have of the “injustice” system we have.

From personal experience one such example is a shameful state of affairs of how a simple case can be dragged out for 11 years. (The backlog of cases is just a small contributory factor.)

For obvious reasons I am unable to comment on the issues that have led to this sorry situation – all in good time, but suffice it to say that if anyone has a claim against a government body the dice is heavily loaded against the citizen.

A government body has a blank cheque of public funds to  defend a case and in this scenario it would seem that it is not in any lawyer’s interest to find an early resolution to the matter, as the more the case is dragged  the more profitable it becomes to keep the cheques from public funds rolling in. A deterrent for anyone to pursue a case no doubt, but an immoral one I think.

As the financial resources of a citizen pale into insignificance against the public purse, all any lawyers acting for a government body really need to do to “defend” a case is sit on their backsides, ignore the issues at stake and wait for the claimant to either lose heart or run out of funds, safe in the knowledge that the public purse will foot their

bills. Why hurry?

Then there is the capping of settlements. How about a cap on lawyers’ fees and therefore give citizens a level playing field!? 

How easy it is to say that each party pay their own expenses when the taxpayer is funding the defence. An all win tactic for a government body and the lawyers (on the other side too) to simply bide their time - it is not their money at stake.

We then get an ombudsman and as soon as he successfully begins to defend citizens’ interests in certain areas what happens? His powers are curtailed. Another safety net removed from the citizen.

Are there no time limitations as to how long a case can be dragged and how long key questions can continue to be ignored.

What recourse do citizens have if they are unhappy with this chain of events.

There is the Bar Council, but the chances are that the person to whom you will be making the complaint might probably be a partner of the firm/s you wish to complain about, if not there is bound to be a family connection or business interests of the firm/s in question. 

So faced with this can citizens afford justice?

This is not only injustice but a suppression of justice – a neat way to keep the peasants under control when your only defence against the big guns is a water pistol.

Disgraceful and immoral!

But the saga continues.

Yours faithfully

 

Isabella Caruana

 

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